


party of six.

by alchemic



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Alternate Universes, As to how smol I'll leave up to you, Bad Puns, Comedy, Comfort, Comfort No Hurt, Communication, Drinking, Established Relationship, Female Reader, Fluff, Friendship, Horrortale Sans (Undertale), I just... love the small bois, In your own ways, It's all fluff, Kinda?, Love, Mentions of Timelines, Multi, Multiverse, Nicknames, Polyamory, Reverse Harem, Romance, SO MUCH FLUFF, Sans-centric, Slice of Life, Smoking, Sorry to all my Papyrus lovers, Swapfell Sans (Undertale), Swearing, The Gangs All Here, The boys are shorter than reader, Underfell Sans (Undertale), Understanding, Underswap Sans (Undertale), With just a sprinkle of small angst, You all love and care for each other, You and the boys are in a poly relationship, bad habits, daily life, not really - Freeform, relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24974470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemic/pseuds/alchemic
Summary: A storm scares the crap out of you one night after a loud strike of thunder. Lucky for you, your five wonderful bonefriends are ready and willing to stay with you until it passes, for your sake of course. No way a little thunder would freak them out, heh.
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Mettaton/Papyrus (Undertale), Sans (Undertale)/Reader, Sans/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 90
Kudos: 251





	1. thunder & lightning.

You sat up with a fright at the crack of thunder just outside your window. The room was flooded with a few flashes of white before being casted into darkness for a moment. It was silent, just your slightly startled breath filling the air before a dull red glow was lighting up the room. It searched back and forth for a moment before it was directed towards the window, and slowly dimmed before putting you back in the dark.

"...christ," Axe muttered beside you, sitting up and rubbing his face. "..you ok, peach?"

"Fine.. stars above," you sighed, putting a hand to your chest. "That just scared the shit out of me."

You'd been on this planet for a while now, and never in your life had thunder sounded so close. It was electrifying, and your poor heart showed no signs of slowing down. Apparently you weren't the only one startled away from the loud sound of thunder as the hall light was turned on, your door now lit up by a small halo of yellow-ish glow. You were a little distracted by the feeling of Axe taking one of your hands and rubbing it soothingly with his thumb that you missed the quiet chatter out in the hallway. You gave him a small smile and a kiss on the cheek in return, and it was only a few moments before you heard a knock on the door.

"It's open," you said. The door cracked open a peek and Blue's face carefully peered in, his normally bright eyelights looking a little frantic.

"I- UH. I APOLOGIZE FOR DISTURBING YOU BOTH SO LATE BUT I JUST WANTED TO CHECK AND MAKE SURE YOU ARE.. OKAY!" he said, sounding rather shaken up himself from the thunder. His normally clean and crisp pajamas looked rumpled as he barely scooted into the room.

"Yes we are," you said, glancing to the window. It began pouring rain, the droplets pounding on the glass and the reverb of thunder in the distance. "Must be a thunder cloud passing overhead. Never heard lightning strike that close before."

"OH, SO THAT'S NOT.. A USUAL THING THEN. GOOD!" Blue said, poking his index fingers together. "UH.. GOOD.."

"..ya can come in if ya want, blue," Axe said and you turned your attention back to the other skeleton.

Blue's face lit up for a moment before he quickly made his way to your bed and dove underneath the covers. He snuggled up to your other side and carefully held on to your arm. Aww, poor thing. You did your best to soothingly stroke his skull.

"....you too, black."

Your eyes went back to the door as another shadow peered into the room.

"I WAS JUST.. ESCORTING BLUE OVER HERE SINCE HE WOULDN'T STOP RATTLING LIKE A BABY BONES," Black huffed, crossing his arms and looking tired and irritated.

"I AM NOT RATTLING!" Blue argued, though you could still feel him shaking a bit. Couldn't blame him though, that thunder had woken you up from a deep sleep and even managed to get Axe up. Stars knows he slept like the dead.

"UGH. WHATEVER, IF YOU ARE ALL FINE I'M GOING BACK TO MY ROO-"

 _KA-BOOM_.

The second strike of thunder rang louder than the first, as both you and Blue let out a yelp, white light filling the room in flashes again. It was a few seconds before you managed to get a grip on yourself, Blue holding on to you tightly and the red glow from Axe's eyelight filling the room again as he frantically looked around for any danger, squeezing your hand tightly. Thankfully everything seemed just fine and you gave his hand a gentle squeeze in return, making his grip loosen. He let out a shaky breath before the light dimmed again and he let out a grunt.

"..what the hell.."

Seriously. Just what the hell was with this storm? Your eyes glance back over to Black who was.. gone from the doorway.

...

Wait.

You carefully peered down to your lap, feeling someone shaking. You gave Axe's hand another squeeze before letting go and lifting the covers, Black burying his face in your legs as he trembled a bit. You felt yourself let go of another gentle sigh before you reached out to stroke his skull too, a worried look on your face.

"THIS-" he began, his voice muffled as his head was still buried in your lap. "THIS IS NOT NATURAL! WHY IS IT SO LOUD!?"

"Guess we're just unlucky to be caught in its path," you said soothingly and he let out another huff.

"..surprised the other two are sleepin' through it," Axe mumbled, now staring as the rain continued to assault the window.

"guess again," a tired voice hummed.

Sans was in the doorway, rubbing his eyesockets sleepily with a very pissed off looking Red right behind him, who was grumbling something incoherent. They both looked exhausted.

"got room for two more in that bone pile?" Sans asked and you giggled.

"Sure, join the party," you said.

"cool."

Red managed to flick off the hall light and closed the bedroom door behind him before the both of them also made some space in your large bed.

"sorry fer intrudin' on your night, axe," Red muttered, taking a spot next to Blue and giving the skeleton a few pats on the back. He was still shaking a bit, but seemed to be better with Red and you comforting him.

"..s'okay. don't mind," Axe said, letting out a yawn. "..kinda like a sleepover."

"technically it's always like a sleepover since we live together," Sans said as he flopped down on the row of pillows behind you. You cocked an eyebrow back at the skeleton.

"..And where am I supposed to lay down here exactly?" you asked and he gave you a wink and placed his arms behind his back.

"wherever you want sweetheart," he said cheekily. "i'll be your pillow tonight."

..and he received a pillow to the face from Red.

"i'm keeping this."

You giggled as Sans' voice was muffled by the pillow and Red just let out a grunt.

"dammit, and i was just startin' to get some peaceful rest too," he muttered, rubbing his eyesockets.

"..what time is it anyways?" Axe asked, glancing around to your nightstand.

"IT'S THREE IN THE MORNING," Black added, finally getting up a bit from your lap. He sat across from you but kept close, glancing down to the bed with a purple flush of magic on his cheeks. Poor guy.

Well, now you had been scared awake from a rather peaceful sleep and only had a few hours until work tomorrow. Shame you weren't tired after having your heart leap into your throat. Apparently Red was on the same wavelength as you as he let out a groan.

"perfect. got opening shift tomorrow and now tha damn thunders got us all awake," he complained, proceeding to turn around and dramatically flop face first into your bed. "ya've got work too, don't ya kitten?"

You also couldn't help but giggle at his muffled tone before nodding.

"Yes, but just the same shift as always," you said, your shoulders sagging a bit.

"EVEN THOUGH IT'S THE WEEKEND?" Blue asked and you sighed.

"They're working us overtime cause of the new client," you murmured. "It's double pay so I couldn't turn it down, and TJ's still on leave so there's only a few of us to do the number crunching."

Your nice office job was stable most days. Morning shifts with weekends and holidays off, plenty of bonuses and even vacation time too, but sometimes you got busy when they took on new clients and you had to put the hustle in by doing OT. Shame mother nature decided to curse your town with this storm the same day you'd be due in on a weekend.  
"MAYBE WE CAN DO SOMETHING THEN UNTIL WE'RE ALL SLEEPY?" Blue suggested and Red just let out another grunt.

"just lay down and get to sleep," he said and the other skeleton frowned.

"what'cha have in mind?" Sans asked and Red managed to lift his head enough to glare at him.

"HMMM. MAYBE WE CAN DO SOMETHING EASY. OH, LIKE TRUTH OR DARE?"

"..sure," Axe said with a shrug and both Black and Red sounded off with a groan.

"You can go first then, Blue," you said and he gave a grin.

"OK! TRUTH OR DARE, MY DEAR!"

Ah. Looks like you were first on the chopping block. Well, you were currently surrounded by skeletons and really didn't feel like getting up, so may as well go the easy option.

"I'll go with truth," you said, smiling at him.

"ALRIGHT. WHO TOOK YOU ON THE BEST DATE THIS WEEK?"

That at least seemed to peak the interest of your two party poopers as all eyelights were on you.

"Starting with a tough one, huh?" you asked before giving it some thought.

"WELL THE CHOICE SHOULD BE OBVIOUS," Black said, crossing his arms.

"yeah. kitten and i had a blast at the show this week, so obviously i'm the winner here," Red said with a smugness in his tone that made you snicker.

"AH! SHE LAUGHED! OBVIOUSLY IT WAS NOT!" Black retorted and Red sent a glare his way.

"MWEH HEH HEH. OBVIOUSLY IT WAS OUR AQUARIUM DATE," Blue said, a pleased smile on his features. "I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU SPOKE OF WANTING TO GO!"

Well, you couldn't deny that. Your time at the aquarium had been wonderful as the two of you gazed upon so many kinds of fish and sea creatures, even taking home a cute seal plushie as a souvenir. Then again, the show with Red had also been a lot of fun. It was nice to let loose while singing and dancing to bands at the Showroom in downtown with him. Black's date of a night out at an expensive restaurant and a movie theater where you could be served wine and fancy desserts was also pleasant. You had both been wanting to see the new Furious and the Fast together (and boy it did not disappoint with the action and cheesy storytelling).

"the hell did you two do?" Red asked, directing his attention to Sans, who gave a shrug with a pillow still covering his face.

"we stayed home," he said and the rest of them rolled their eyelights. Rather simple way to put in a day of binge watching documentaries together and eating snacks. Sure, it'd hadn't been the fanciest of dates, but you loved it nonetheless. Still the winner had to be..

"It's really hard to choose you know, and it's not fair to make it some kind of competition," you said, eyeing the three as they all gave a sheepish grin. "I really loved going out with everyone."

The boys still seemed determined to get an answer though as they looked at you expectantly.

"..But I think Axe's date really takes the cake."

He flushed a bit, but looked rather pleased as he chuckled at your pun.

"WHA- WHAT DID YOU TWO DO?" Black asked, glancing back and forth in a small disbelief.

"finally did that baking thing?" Sans asked and Axe nodded.

"...took a class. had us bake a cake together with just a picture and a recipe. battled other couples," he said. "had no idea what we were doing... made a mess. was a lot of fun."

It's true. It was almost like an episode of Nailed It. The host had just given you two hours to recreate a beautiful cake with just a recipe and a picture. You were no expert for sure, but you at least had a few ideas on how to bake. That two hour time limit really did you in though, and things quickly went from alright to a disaster. It was an absolute blast. Your stomach had hurt from laughing so much with Axe and the other couples present, and your ugly mountain of cake also turned out to be pretty tasty.

"WELL CONGRATULATIONS AXE," Blue said, actually sounding impressed. At least the boys were good sports about it as Red gave a shrug and Black just puffed his cheeks a bit.

"..thanks," he said, before glancing at you. "..s'your turn now, pumpkin."

Oh right. You were playing Truth or Dare.

"Hmmm," you said rather dramatically. Your eyes carefully wandered over the boys who were now interested in the game. Finally you looked back to Sans. "Alright Sans. Truth or dare."

"truth me," he said, still not bothering to move the pillow from his face. "feelin' a little too comfy for any dares at the moment."

"Mkay, let's see," you said. Well, there was a lot you could ask. You had known Sans the longest out of everyone. You had also been in a relationship with Sans the longest out of anyone else, but he was still such an enigma to you. A funny little question passed in your mind as you looked at everyone though, so you decided to humor it.

"Would you ever date an alternate version of me?" you asked.

There was a pause.

"..nah," he said finally.

"hey, he fuckin' hesitated," Red said, pointing a finger at the skeleton.

"cause i wanted to give a real answer ya dingus," Sans said in response.

"Well I appreciate you giving it some thought at least," you said with a laugh, glancing between the two and Red gave a huff and rolling his eyelights again.

"ARE THERE ALTERNATE VERSION OF YOU?" Blue asked, eyeing you curiously. 

You could only give a shrug in response.

"I dunno really," you said. "Never met one but considering we're all from other universes I guess we couldn't rule out the possibility."

"regardless, they'd be a totally different person," Sans said. "just cause they're technically 'you' doesn't mean i'd like 'em. i like you cause you're you."

Aww, that was sweet.

"why the question anyways blue? thinking about dating another human?" Red asked, giving him a toothy grin.

"WHAT? NO! I WAS JUST CURIOUS. I.. NEVER REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT ANOTHER VERSION OF OUR DATEMATE. BUT I WOULD NEVER! SHE'S TOO SPECIAL."

Aww.

"..would you?" Axe asked, eyeing Red curiously.

"me? hell no. hard enough keeping up with all you boneheads. 'sides kitten's got a special place in my soul," he said, giving you a wink. "sorry hun, yer stuck with me forever."

..These guys were gonna turn you to mush.

"..black?"

"HMPH. THAT SHOULD OBVIOUSLY GO WITHOUT SAYING..." he said, crossing his arms and giving a huff. "I ONLY HAVE ONE HUMAN THAT I WOULD GO OUT OF MY WAY FOR AND SHE'S RIGHT HERE. WOULD YOU?"

"...meh," Axe said, giving a shrug.

"MEH?" Black asked, giving him an eye. "THAT'S ALL YOU'VE GOT? MEH?"

"..yeah. well.. you know.." he started and you felt yourself glancing at him rather curiously. Everyone else was too. "might be nice to _m-eat_ her."

...

Blue and Black groaned while Red and Sans let out a snicker. You found yourself playfully glaring at Axe as he gave you a wink.

"..but no. i'd never. our peach is.. one of a kind."

"I didn't mean for the question to get so cheesy, but I love you guys a lot too," you said with a smile. It was really sweet how special these guys made you feel. "Oh! Right, it's your turn Sans."

You kept forgetting you were playing this game.

"alright. red, truth or dare."

"dare," Red said, and from his direct tone you had a feeling that he and Sans were up to something.

"i dare you and everyone else to go to sleep," Sans said, and you could almost feel the cheeky grin on his face from underneath that pillow.

"done!" Red said as he went back to laying face first into your bed and letting out a loud snore.

"HEY!" Blue said, puffing his cheeks out in a pout.

"THEY'RE RIGHT, IT'S ALMOST THREE THIRTY NOW. THE STORM IS LETTING UP A BIT SO IT'S TIME TO SLEEP," Black said, his eyelight scanning over to Sans. "..IF THE PILLOW KING OVER THERE WOULD FEEL LIKE SHARING, THAT IS."

"offer tribute to your ruler and i may consider it," Sans said, waving a hand but making no efforts to move. Black let out a growl.

"Oh please, great and honorable Pillow King, will you bestow your humble servants a place to rest thine head," you said, earning you a chuckle from Axe and the 'supposedly asleep' Red.

"well, can't argue with that spiel," Sans said and you lightly removed the pillow from his face. He still had his arms behind his skull as he gave you a wink. You rolled your eyes but did your best to pass out what pillows you could manage to pull out from underneath him.

Finally pulling out one for yourself you threw it into San's lap before putting your head down. Axe was on your right and moved down a bit so he wasn't bonking skulls with Sans and Blue scooted towards the end of the bed to bunker down with Black, leaving Red on your left. He rather unsneakily rolled over to be a little closer to you and you giggled.

"IF ANY OF YOU KICK IN YOUR SLEEP, I CAN AND WILL DESTROY YOU," Black said rather flatly before laying down.

"no promises," Red said.

"AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE ASLEEP?" Black retorted and received another loud fake snore in response, earning a few more snickers from the peanut gallery.

"Good night!"

"GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE!"

"..GOOD NIGHT."

"sleep tight."

"..night.."

You received one more comically loud snore from Red before you snuggled down in the pile of skeletons, and drifted off back to sleep. A shame that your alarm early in the morning had to take you away from it all, but a quick breakfast of frozen waffles and coffee with Red made it all the better before you took off to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello and welcome to my very indulgent multiverse fic! ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿
> 
> this is.. just fluff. it's all fluff. i just love all these boys a lot and wanted to write about them in funny every day scenarios. each chapter is a completed piece and there is no overarching plot, just small slice of life stories about you and them all living together!


	2. fruits & thoughts.

"Think we should say something?" you asked, leaning on to the shopping cart. It was brimming with all kinds of snacks, drinks, fruits and vegetables, all piled on top of one skeleton.

"..he's doing his thing," Axe said softly as you both watched Blue, who was comparing tubs of grapes, carefully weighing each container in a gloved hand. "...sides.. i got my eye on a pretty _peach_ myself."

"Oh?" you asked before looking down, Axe giving you a wink.

..Oh.

OH!

You! He was talking about you.

You let out a snort as he wiggled his browbones at you, unable to help yourself as you leaned into the cart and planted a kiss on his cheek. He was too cute.

"Aww, well aren't you a _sweet pea_ ," you said and he chuckled. "Still holdin' up ok?"

"..yeah. kinda comfy," Axe said with a shrug, making a few chip bags crinkle with all his movements.

"GOOD! BECAUSE YOU ARE STUCK THERE UNTIL CHECK OUT," Blue said, finally returning to the cart with the most pristine container of grapes you had ever seen. "OR UNTIL YOU DECIDE TO PORT OUT, BUT I HAVE ALREADY ARRANGED EVERYTHING WITH YOU IN MIND, SO I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU DON'T."

"..don't plan on it," Axe said with another shrug.

"EXCELLENT!" he said, placing the grapes carefully among all the other stuff. "NOW THEN, MY _SUGAR PLUMS_ , LET US CONTINUE!"

That one earned a snicker from both you and Axe as you gave the cart a push and followed behind Blue. The three of you were on shopping duties this week, which actually made for a rather nice team.

Blue was very meticulous about putting together a full list of everything everyone wanted, and had a foolproof plan to get you all in and out as quickly as possible. You were there to provide a vehicle for transport, saving a few teleporting trips for the boys, and.. well... Axe was there to be cute.. as well as give his opinion on dinner ideas and junk foods. With so many people in the house you all tried to make it a point to keep things well stocked, but with six of you things tended to fly rather fast, which resulted in an almost weekly shopping trip.

Sans and Red were notorious snack hogs.

They just.. ate everything up in a week's time.

You'd have to stash things along with Axe to prevent your favorite chips from being reduced to crumbs before you even have a chance to eat them. It was good, because it meant nothing ever went bad in the house, and it was bad when the cosmic brownies didn't even last two days without being completely eaten.

Blue and Black were more of the health nuts of the group, always trying to make real meals for everyone and discouraged all of the junk food eating (but still indulged from time to time). It was a good balance between having snacks and going out, as well as having home cooked meals and spending time with all of them at the end of the day around the table.

You did your best to contribute every once in a while by making dinners and lunches, but those two liked to pick up in heated competitions every once in a while of who makes the better meals. Although their back and forth was a little exhausting, their competitive nature meant the rest of you got to reap the benefits of nice meals. Their cooking had really improved from when they first arrived, thanks to that.

Axe was.. more on the reserved side when it came to food. He had a rather strict diet when you first met thanks to the awful time he spent in his Underground, but even now years later he does his best to maintain a pace with it all. He eats just about anything, literal trash included, but you've all done your best to make sure he never feels anything but taken care of. He deserved it.

He still had a bad habit of stashing food from time to time (and you didn't have the heart to tell him not to), but as a compromise he also stashed your favorite snacks with him, just so Sans and Red couldn't get to them. More recently he seemed to like helping with making dinner too, usually doing simple tasks like peeling potatoes or cutting vegetables.

"PLEASE EXCUSE US, MISS!" Blue said, passing by a woman who was comparing watermelons right in the middle of the isle.

"Kind of busy today, huh?" you said as you carefully slipped by, trying your best to ignore her glare. You missed the haunting stare Axe shot back, making the lady go as white as a sheet.

"WELL IT IS NEAR THE END OF THE MONTH," Blue said, pausing for a moment before adding a bag of oranges to the cart. "WHICH MEANS THE MONSTER BENEFITS HAVE BEEN PAID."

Oh right.

You almost forgot.

The government paid out a small monthly amount of money to monsters as a sort of.. apology? You know. For humankind banishing them below a mountain and then forgetting about them for hundreds of years... even though it wasn't technically your timeline that had done it. Even after the coalescing of all these timelines, the government has still made it a point to payout monsters for their troubles and traumas, even offering higher payouts to those timelines that have suffered more.

"...forgot?" Axe said, looking back at your expression.

"Ehehe, maybe?" you said sheepishly. "More like I didn't realize we were almost at the end of the month."

The days just kind of blended together recently.

You were happy and content with your life and your job, and the six of you had fallen into a comfortable routine with one another. Even if your everyday wasn't exactly normal being surrounded by your monster boyfriends, there was a lot of love and fun being had.

"GOOD THING WE ARE HERE TO REMIND YOU, MY DEAREST!" Blue said with a small spin and a flourish as you entered the bakery department of the store.

The scents of fresh bread filled your nose and you could already feel your stomach growling, doing your best to ignore Axe's quiet snickering. Probably not the best to shop on an empty stomach, but the three of you had lunch plans once you finished at a little café not far from the house, and you were determined to hold out until then.  
Still.. all of the sweets looked rather tasty.

"..something catch your eye _honey bun_?"

"Just the couple of _snacks_ I brought with me," you said, smiling down at Axe. He grinned.

"DONUT MAKE ME SEPARATE YOU TWO!" Blue said crossing his arms and 'tisk'ing you both while you giggled. You always loved doing chores with these two. Between Blue's bright optimism and Axe's calmer and peaceful demeanor, your weekly errands felt more like fun than an actual chore.

"hey," Axe said rather suddenly, cutting you short in your food pun off.

"Hm?"

"..free samples at twelve o'clock."

Sure enough, at your twelve there was an elderly lady handing out samples of.. something. It was a little too far to be sure exactly what, but it was free.

"AH, GOOD. THEN WE SHALL SPLIT OUR EFFORTS!" Blue strategized. "I WILL RETRIEVE THE SANDWICH BREAD AND DINNER ROLLS. IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND GRABBING THE SAMPLES DEAREST, THAT WOULD LEAVE AXE TO GUARD OUR PRECIOUS CARGO!"

"..sure thing boss," Axe said, leaning back and making himself more comfortable in the cart.

"Aye aye, captain!" you sounded off. The three of you lightly fist-bumped before you set off to acquire the goods. The elderly lady seemed to smile at your approach, and you politely inquire for three samples for you and your bone boys. They were apparently some kind of new granola bar with fruits and nuts all gussied up with some fancy dark chocolate. The brand themselves boasted about being organic and all-natural with no artificial flavors or preservatives...

..but you didn't really care about all that.

You just wanted the free samples.

You returned to the cart with three little plastic cups filled with a small cut of the granola bar just in time as Blue placed the bread in the basket.

"IMPECCABLE TIMING AS USUAL, MY DEAR!" Blue complimented and you grinned, handing the two of them their share as well as giving them both a kiss on their foreheads.

"Apparently it's some kind of-"

 **CRUNCH**.

Both Blue's and yours gaze went right to Axe, who had promptly thrown the granola square and plastic cup into his mouth.

"..AXE.." Blue said, letting out a sigh. "WE'VE TALKED ABOUT THIS!"

"..whoops."

He kept chewing anyways as you gave him a bit of a look. That could not be tasty.

"Apparently it's some kind of all natural granola bar," you said to Blue as he ate his piece. He seemed thoughtful for a few moments as he chewed before looking rather unimpressed.

"..kinda crunchy," Axe said and you glared at him playfully, a shit eating grin on his features.

"AND WHO'S FAULT IS THAT EXACTLY?" Blue asked as you ate your piece and pocketed the plastic cup to throw away later. It was rather nice, but it also kind of tasted just like any other granola bar. Guess the 'all-natural' part was just there to jack up the price.

"..WE HAVE ONE MORE STOP BEFORE WE'RE DONE!"

Good.

As much as you loved spending the day shopping with these two, the loud shouting of children and the packed isles were getting rather exhausting. Not to mention that granola bars didn't do much for your hunger, and the thoughts of a nice lunch were still on your mind. You trailed behind Blue, carefully weaving through the crowd before stopping back into the baking isle.

"Did we forget something?" you asked curiously, glancing around. You had already been down here once, and it was rare for Blue to miss something.

"NO, BUT THAT FREE SAMPLE GAVE ME A WONDERFUL IDEA!" he said, glancing down to his phone and scrolling.

"...oh?"

"WE COULD MAKE OUR OWN GRANOLA BARS!"

"...ohhh. nice."

Nice indeed! That actually sounded rather fun. The three of you liked to have little baking dates together from time to time, and granola bars would be something fun and new to try. You could definitely make something more tasty than the sample you just tried.

"WE COULD FILL IT WITH WHATEVER WE WANT TOO!" Blue said, stars forming in his eyesockets, before glancing to Axe who had his hand up. "AND NO WE WILL NOT BE PUTTING PLASTIC."

"..shame," he said, putting his hand down. "...adds some interesting texture."

"I think it's a great idea Blue," you said and he smiled at you.

"GOOD! NOT ONLY DO WE GET TO DO SOMETHING FUN, BUT IT'S A GOOD EXCUSE TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH TWO OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE!"

Aww.

"What a _cutie pie_ ," you said as Blue began grabbing a few more ingredients off the shelves.

"..true. i could just _eat him up_ ," Axe said and you giggled.

Oats, dark chocolate, nuts, honey and a few selections of dried fruit were added to your cart, and away the three of you went to the checkout counter. Axe seemed more than content to stay in the cart as you neatly put your bags around him and you all finally made a break for the outside world. It was a beautiful spring day, and the bustling grocery store gave away to a peaceful quiet parking lot as you pushed your cart to the car.

"Want me to throw you in the back with everything?"

Axe actually seemed to consider it for a moment.

"..nah."

At least he was thoughtful enough to wait for you and Blue to finish putting the groceries inside before climbing out and hopping in the car. You did your civic duty of replacing the cart to the corral, and finally hopped into the drivers side, letting out a sigh.

"It feels like there's more people every time we go in there," you said, buckling up.

"WELL THERE ARE A LOT OF NEW HOUSING PLOTS OPENING UP ALL OVER," Blue added from your passenger seat. "THAT OTHER TIMELINE RECENTLY CAME ABOUT, I'M NOT EVEN SURE THEY'VE NAMED THEMSELVES YET."

Wow.

That would be the eighth timeline to make their appearance, right? It was strange to think six years ago monsters would have first made their emergence from the Underground. They had arrived to a world that.. wasn't theirs. It was no longer the surface the young child had fallen from, and after several resets and timelines, the time space around the Underground had become unstable. It was like a small stream had broken off a river and converged with another. From there, more and more timelines had begun appearing throughout the years.

Magic had never existed in your timeline until that moment.

There were no mages.

No lost history of monsters.

Nothing.

But..

..There was acceptance and understanding. The people of this city embraced their newfound citizens, and offered what they could to shelter them. They gave love and kindness, and in turn monsters did the same. The government made them citizens, and gave them grants to assist them to live normal lives and wanted to discover more about them. The scientific studies of magic, and about time travel in particular, are still ongoing to this day, but the mysterious power of 'resetting' has consistently been lost among all timelines when arriving to this surface. The world here refused to go back, or so Frisk told you.

' _Not that I would want to!_ ' they had signed to you before hesitating. ' _It's just a feeling I get.. This timeline is permanent. No resets, from me or from anyone._ '

Magic was still a little beyond you.

In only six years, humanity has still learned so little. There's much even monsters don't know themselves about it.. about the curse that had been placed upon their mountain, which had granted the ability to go back in time. Still, there was progress. You were happy that out of all the timelines, yours had been the one they surfaced on. It was around six years that you also met a certain monster who changed your life forever, after all.

"..wonder if the city is just going to keep growing," Axe said, his eyesockets closed as he dozed in the backseats of your car.

"Who knows? In just six years this place has grown so much from the small town I remember," you responded, eyes on the road before you. It had been so quiet and peaceful, a few scattered houses and a close knit community in the countryside of the mountains, and now it's grown so much it merged to the town next door to form Ebott City. It wouldn't be long before they would start building beyond the mountains that surrounded it.

"NOT MANY MONSTERS TRAVEL EITHER," Blue added. "JUST LIKE US THEY PLANTED THEIR ROOTS NOT TOO FAR FROM THE MOUNTAIN."

Very few traveled, and now living in a city with the largest monster population made this the tourist destination of the world. It also made it incredibly difficult to get a permit to live out here, having it mandated and controlled by the government. You were lucky enough to grow up here and not go through the paperwork and troubles of trying to move in from out of state.

Timelines might just keep appearing, too. Although they've slowed down a lot since the first two years, they certainly showed no signs of stopping, which meant the city would keep building houses for all of them to live in.  
You.. wondered if you all should move into a bigger house.

It had been an idea you all spoke about from time to time, but never really made any efforts to go through with. You all had your own rooms, which was nice, but the housing was rather cramped. No more than two of them could fit in the kitchen at a time. The couch took up most of your living room. Sans, Axe and Blue wanted to grow a garden. Black wanted a place for his sewing. Red wanted to have a space to keep some instruments he was learning. You also thought about making your own office space to work on your editing, a side gig that you had once dreamed of making a full on career..

It was a long list of wants.

It would be such a daunting task to find another house that worked for everyone, which is probably why you still hadn't pursued it seriously yet. But.. if another timeline was arriving, then more housing was definitely being built. Perhaps this was your chance to move somewhere with enough space for everyone? ..Maybe you'd bring up at dinner, but if the timing just wasn't right, then you were more than content with your life now.

The three of you arrived at home before chatting and putting all your groceries away. It was fun, peaceful and a little cramped with the three of you in the kitchen...

But you wouldn't trade it for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy again! thanks for all of your wonderful comments and responses on the first chapter, i'm glad you all enjoyed it! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
> 
> i decided to at least sprinkle in some context about the premise of this world and how things came to be in this chapter (as well as a future mini story arc /winkwink.). these are a lot of fun to write, so i hope you look forward to more! thank you!


	3. music & melodies.

It was rare for the house to be empty.

Living with five other people usually meant someone was home, but it was unusually quiet today as you threw up your purse on the coat rack and let out a sigh. Nobody stuck their head out of their room, nobody shouted 'welcome home' like usual, just a peaceful quiet home. You let out a small hum, taking off your shoes by the door and stretching out your body from your long day at the office. Sitting at a desk all day really did a number on your back, and the drive home in mid-day traffic hadn't helped in the slightest. Not to mention you were slammed at work since it was nearing the end of the month and the books needed to be closed, and TJ wouldn't be back from leave for at least another week. Sheesh, when they got back you were going to need a vacation from how much effort you had been putting in recently. 

Urgh.

And now you were here. 

Alone. 

Without a bonefriend in sight. 

A shame really, you could use a distraction from all the numbers still running in your head, but the boys were busy. Blue and Black were out on a date and you knew Axe was with his brother at their weekly therapy session. Sans had just texted you about being held up by something with Alphys... so ..where was Red? Maybe you'd text him in a moment, just to see if he was okay. 

You gave another stretch, putting your hands over your head and letting out a small groan before you heard a whistle behind you, a smoky scent tickling your nose. Turning back you saw Red by the door, the faint red smoke left by his teleport still lingering around him and a flirty smile on his features. Oh, he had been ogling you.

"well, well, well. always nice to come back and seein' my pretty little kitty strecthin' out," he purred and you stuck your tongue out at him.

"Hi Red," you giggled as you turned to receive a sweet smooch from him, draping your arms over his shoulders. "Just get home too?"

"yeah, was out fixin' Paps' car," he said with a shrug, before putting his arms around your waist. "was actually comin' by to see if classic was back yet."

"Oh? He just texted me before I left work about getting held up by Alphys," you said and Red's browbones furrowed.

"wha- fuckin' asshole," he muttered, keeping an arm around you while pulling out his own phone. "couldn' bother to text me back huh?"

"Well, it was a while ago," you said in Sans' defense. Whoops, didn't mean to get him in trouble. Then again it would be his own fault, his was terrible about reading a text and forgetting to reply to it. "Why? Got something planned?" 

"kinda," he muttered, frowning at his phone before pocketing it. "said he was gonna come with me to the shop to pick up a record i ordered."

About half a year ago Red's interest in music had really begun to blossom. He always seemed to enjoy it, escaping into his headphones and branching out into more and more types of tunes when he arrived on the surface. You loved listening to him explain all about the different types of sounds, symphs and styles within a genres, a certain twinkle in his eyesockets as he talked about it. The two of you had spent countless hours in his room just listening to CDs on an old boombox when you first started dating, and you could see him get more and more invested into it as time went on. 

It was just too cute to see him dive deeper into his interests with all of your support, taking a total 180 from that grumpy boy who you had first met who hated talking about himself (or anything for that matter) to a monster who practically gushed about music if given the chance. The group had all pitched in to buy him a record player this past Christmas (and he totally cried, but you all swore to never bring it up again unless you wanted an ass kicking), and his record collection has been growing steadily ever since. He also recently loved taking you out to concerts and local shows at venues. It was fun and a great way to vent out all your stress and worries with drinks and good music.

He also quit his mechanic job a few weeks ago to work at the record store in town, and even though it paid less you could see how much more he loved it being surrounded by fellow music junkies like himself. You were really happy for him.

"He also said he didn't know how long he'll be," you added apologetically and Red let out a grunt, putting his head on your chest. "But.. I could always go with you, if you want."

A pause.

He didn't answer you right away and you suddenly felt a little silly for the offer. You hadn't visited Red's work place yet, usually Sans went with him if he ever ordered a record or something. Maybe.. he didn't want you to go? 

"I don't have to if you don't want me to," you said softly, playing with the fur on his hoodie.

"no!" he began, quickly lifting his head up to look at you, recoiling a bit at the look at your surprised face. "er.. no. i mean, it's not that i don't want you to come, it's just-"

He let out an aggravated huff and you gave him a second to sort himself out. Red was quick to talk but sometimes needed a moment to get his thoughts together, and you could tell by the way his brows furrowed again while studying your features that he was thinking rather hard about what he wanted to say next.

"there's just.. this bastard who works there," he muttered. "gale. guys a real piece o' work. he's a jerk and a skirt chaser. flirt with any gal who's got a pulse."

Now you were starting to catch on. 

Red wasn't the jealous type anymore, a problem he had worked on rather well when he first joined in on Sans' and your relationship, he just hated seeing you get harassed. After you had confessed to him about your times of being catcalled and heckled by men on the streets, he had always been more protective around flirtatious guys who 'dared hit on his girl'. It was a sad part of life, but you were a tough woman and you wouldn't let some punk dude get in the way of spending some time with Red.

"just didn't want him botherin' ya. stars knows he's got it out for us since me n' classic embarrassed him in front of some girls last time we were in the shop."

"..Oh?" you asked, a cheeky smile on your features.

"hey, it wasn't our fault his pants just happened to fall," red said with a smug grin and a shrug. "asshole shoulda worn a belt or somethin' with those tacky ass pants."

You giggled before planting a kiss on his forehead.

"I'll be fine, promise," you said with a smile. "Plus I really want to check out the shop! You talk about it so much it'd be nice to finally see it."

He seemed to hesitate for just a moment before relenting at your puppy dog eyes.

"alright, alright. that desperate to spend some time with me, eh kitten?" he said and you nodded. That familiar flush of red found its way to his cheeks, just like it always did when you were straightforward with your affection for him. He was always a sucker for the mushy stuff like holding hands and talking about feelings. Made him flush harder than any dirty talk or scandalous flirting.

"hopefully it'll get jen off my back too," he said, rubbing the back of his skull. "talk about ya a lot at work and she keeps tellin' me to bring you by."

"Guess I'll have to make a good first impression then. Should I get changed?" you asked, pulling back from holding onto your skele-bae to glance down at your office attire. Tights, a pencil skirt and a button up; your usual go-to for the office, but maybe not the best for a record shop?

"nah, ya know i love your little office lady look," Red said getting close again to gently nuzzle his face against yours. "s'real cute."

Welp, you couldn't argue with that. After finishing up with nuzzling and planting a few kisses on his cute face, you put back on your heels and grabbed your purse. Red took your hand in his as he admired you for a moment before giving a wink.

"hold on tight, doll," he said and you closed your eyes.

The sensation of teleporting was different with each of the boys. Sans' was cold and left goosebumps dancing on your skin. Blue's felt electrifying, like a small static shock to your senses that made you feel a little jittery. Black's was so controlled and focused you hardly felt anything at all, just the small whisper of something cool on your neck. Axe's was.. harsh. Volatile. It left a bitter taste in your mouth (which is probably why he refrained from using it unless he had to). And Red's was warm, the scent of smoke and firewood always hanging around after you appeared. 

The scent was quickly washed away by the smells of the city as you arrived to your destination in an instant. It appeared to be an alleyway between two buildings of the downtown district in Ebott. A quiet spot for sure, but you could hear the chatter and commotion of a busy afternoon just a few steps away.

"care to give a review for ya uber?" Red said, giving you a wink. 

"Well, they were nice enough to send their cutest driver, so I guess I'll have to give him five stars," you said, planting a kiss on his cheek.

"eheheheh, you're too good to me kitten," he said, squeezing your hand and leading you around the corner. Sure enough, you were greeted by a busy sidewalk of monsters and humans alike, rows of shops lining the streets as you followed beside Red. It was no wonder Blue and Black had gone off on a picnic today with how beautiful the weather was. The walk was short and your eyes eventually landed on an 'Ebott City Records' sign, a rather large store in the middle of the bustling downtown area. The building was definitely old, but looked as if it had been renovated a few years ago with instruments and posters in the windows, and plenty of monsters and humans entering and exiting the doors.

A bell jingled as you entered with Red holding the door open for you before heading inside. There was a certain musk of dust, wood and heavily treaded carpet that hung in the air, and the once bustling streets had faded away to a quiet shop filled to the brim with records. They lined the walls and sat in stacks along the isles, lots of people flipping through them as you admired the space. Some albums on the walls you recognized, most you didn't. Music was such a vast world, especially now with monsters producing their own sounds too, it was no wonder how Red got in so deep.

"I can see why you like the place so much," you said softly and Red grinned.

"pretty cool, eh?" 

"Very," you added, taking a small glance around again as he led you towards the front counter, seeing a girl with a colorful afro bouncing her head along to some tunes as she unboxed what looked like stacks of records. Her punk-ish attire was really cool, and the variety of piercings she had in her ears were impressive. She caught sight of you two as you approached the counter and put on a big smile as she waved.

"Yo! Dude! I've been waiting for you!" she said, rather excitedly before moving her eyes in your direction and letting out a small gasp. "Oh my god, is this your girl?"

"yeah," he said a little sheepishly. "kitten, this is jen."

"Nice to meet you Jen," you said, offering a handshake which she quickly grabbed.

"Ahh! It's so rad to finally meet you! " she squealed, giving you a firm shake. "..Shit, you know, I thought you were just gassin' up your game, but damn she's pretty!"

"heh, told ya."

You felt a blush creep across your cheeks before you tried to wave it off.

"Hey, speak for yourself! Your jacket is amazing, by the way," you retaliated and she absolutely beamed. It was made from black leather and decorated with a plethora of studs and patches, looking heavily loved and worn. It suited her, and glistened just like her dark eyes under the fluorescent lighting.

"And she's got good taste!? Man.. I'm jellin' out right now. No wonder you're always talking about her," she said and you could see Red swelling with pride.

"i know," he said, giving you a glance. "imma lucky bonehead to call her mine."

Damn, he was too cute! You gave him another quick peck on the cheek as he chuckled, unable to stand just how adorable he was with that light blush of red magic on his face.

"Oh, right! Your record came," she said, disappearing behind the counter a moment before returning. "Dude, the alternative art for that Bright Division record looks so fucking sick."

"it's exactly why i had ta get my hands on it," he said, taking the shrink-wrapped record from Jen and admiring it. Bright Division..

"That was the band you showed me last week, right?" you asked and he nodded.

"yeah. the really cool futuristic hardcore hip hop group. they've got a killer rhythm and the production on this album is their best yet," Red said, his eyelights adoring the record in his hands. 

"Not to mention their lyrics! MXHL is killing it with all the political commentary and personal quips," Jen added. "Feels so raw and exposed. Ugh, it's so good. I can't wait until they tour."

You felt your smile grow as they both talked, clearly a deep seeded love for music between them as they both raved about the record. No wonder Red gave up that other job to be here, just seeing him talk about his passions with one of his co-workers and being surrounded by it made you feel happy. 

"Oh fuck, how could I almost forget?" Jen said. "I was gonna wait 'till you got back from your days off but, since you're here, Frank finally got that old school jukebox refurbished!"

"wait, for real?" Red asked, his eyesockets going wide. "i thought he was just fuckin' around with it."

"Nope! They delivered it today! It's the back, we still gotta set it up and everything, but did you wanna come see? It's super fucking awesome."

Red took a step forward before pausing, glancing back to you as you gave him a questioning look.

"err..ol' frankie's pretty strict about his 'employee's only' in the backroom. lotta merchandise.. wouldn't want to get ya in trouble," he said. "..and i also dun wanna leave ya here if gale's out and about." 

"Well you're in luck! He's not here today," Jen said looking rather pleased. Apparently she didn't care much for the guy either. Must be a real certified shithead.

"Then there's no reason not to go right?" you said to him and he looked a little hesitant to leave. "Go on, I'm more than okay with looking around."

"..m'kay," he said, giving your hand a final squeeze before he let go. "it'll just be fer a sec."

"Take your time you goofball, there's plenty for me to browse through here," you said and he grinned at you before following Jen into the back room. His concern made you feel warm and fuzzy, but you didn't want to hold him back from checking out something cool like an old record player just for your sake. You stood there only for a moment before wandering around the shop. It was large with an impressive amount of records everywhere. A few old bands, a lot of new ones and even some movie soundtracks. They really made anything into a record huh? Besides all the records everywhere, they also had a section of DVDs and CDs around, even a few VHS tapes and cassettes littered in the mix. Man, it has been years since you've seen some of this stuff. This place was almost like a time capsule!

You were yourself admiring some movies from your childhood when you heard someone approach beside you. You glanced over, expecting to find Red and Jen, but only found yourself meeting gazes with a human man. He was tall and rather scrawny, dark hair a bit of a mess and a poor excuse of a mustache on his face. He looked.. trendy? You weren't exactly on the up and ups of fashion yourself, but his sweater and jeans looked a bit expensive. But.. there was something off about him. Like he was trying too hard? 

You eyed him rather curiously as he gave you a crooked smile.

"Don't think I've seen you around here, beautiful," he said and you frowned. 

Oh boy.

"Not interested," you replied rather flatly before looking back to the VHS tape in your hands.

"A-ah, h-hey! I didn't even say anything yet!" he said getting a little closer, his hands up defensively.

"Actually, you've said enough," you retorted, not bothering to spare him another glance. "And as I've said I have no interest."

You heard the man let out an annoyed grunt, but he didn't seem interested in leaving you alone. Great. Couldn't just browse in peace, could you?

"K-kinda harsh don't you think? Not even letting a guy speak for himself to a pretty lady like you before shooting him down," he said, faking sympathy for himself and you did your best to not roll your eyes. "Just couldn't help it."

"Right," you muttered. "Look.. buddy. I don't owe you a conversation. I don't owe you my time. I don't owe you an explanation. Just do us both a favor and go away."

He let out another surprised huff, going quiet for a moment but you just kept your eyes on the shelf as you put the VHS back, not wanting to even give him the time of day.

"W-well I mean.. seeing you here was just like.. magnetic, I knew I'd have to at least try to shoot my shot for a beauty like you. Could always give a guy a chance."

Ugh. Seriously dude, take the hint.

"I mean you never know right? We could be like.. soulmates or something?"

You couldn't help but turn to glare at him. He flinched back ever so slightly under your stare as you narrowed your eyes further. This guy had a real nerve to even _suggest_ such a thing and you just couldn't hold back the venom in your tone when you spoke.

"..Does this work for you?" 

"..Uhh, huh?" he asked, sweating bullets.

"This," you said, gesturing to all of him. "Harassing someone. Looking like a tool. Being an all around annoyance. Does this work? Does it score you dates?"

"Well, I just thought-"

"I don't care what you thought. I don't care what you currently think, for that matter. I told you I wasn't interested, and that should have been enough, but instead you somehow think that you are entitled to my time. You're not. Take the hint pal and buzz off."

The guy opened his mouth to say something but quickly clicked his tongue in response before letting out another huff.

"Fucking bit-"

" **go ahead and finish that, i fuckin' dare ya.** "

Red's spiteful tone caught you by surprise as the man stepped away from you. Turning back you could see the skeleton was fuming, grinding his teeth as he put himself between you and the annoying dude who was now glaring daggers at him.

"Wha- what the hell, dude?! Do you mind? I'm trying to-"

"yeah, actually. i do mind. wanna try finishin' what you were gonna say and insultin' my girl?" he snarled and the guy looked back to you for a moment.

"..What? I thought you had like, a ..boyfriend or whatever?" he said, now giving you a strange, almost weirded out look.

"yeah? and? got several more at home too. that doesn't got shit to do with the fact that you couldn't respect her when she told ya to get lost," Red snapped again, taking a step forward while he took a step back. You put a hand on his shoulder and felt his magic tingling underneath your touch, his shoulders tense under your touch. Giving him a small squeeze, he let out a huff but at least took on a less aggressive stance against the guy. 

"The fuck you doing here anyways, Gale? I thought today was your day off," Jen said, standing beside you while sounding rather annoyed.

"P-Picking up my damn check," he said and straightening himself out a bit, now looking in your direction rather distastefully as you let out a scoff. So this was Gale, huh? Nice to see your earlier assessment of him being a shithead was correct.

"Yeah, yeah. C'mon, I'll go grab it for ya and you can leave her alone," Jen said before making a bit of a face. He circled around the two of you, keeping a distance from the Red and his killer glare as he retreated.

"fuckin' figures that piece of shit would be on ya as soon as he saw ya," Red muttered as he continued to stare the guy down. "..sorry, doll."

"You don't have to apologize on his behalf, Red," you said softly and placed a kiss on the top of his skull. "I appreciate you scaring him off though. Always hate the persistent types."

Usually when you ignore a guy or tell him to go away he'd just insult you and leave you be. A few like him just kept thinking they had a chance and just wouldn't give up. 

"fuckers delusional if he thinks he's got a chance. lucky i don't tear an eye out for even glancin' your way. "

"He's not worth the trouble," you said. "Besides, I don't think he'll be bothering us again."

Red let out a small 'hmph' before taking your hand again and heading out of the store. A shame you wouldn't be able to say goodbye to Jen, but you managed to glance back in time to catch a wave from her which you gladly returned. Hopefully you'd be able to see her again.

"..Was the record player cool?" you asked, still feeling a little tension from Red as you walked on the sidewalks of downtown again.

"..yeah," he puffed and went quiet for a moment. "..s'real old school. sounds amazing and it lights up real nice. use to see a couple broken ones down in the underground and at grillbz.. always wondered what a fully workin' one was like."

He slowly began to let go of his anger as he talked, and you were glad to get him back to that cute smiling skeleton again as he gushed about it. He said it should be out for display next time you were in the shop, and you were more than happy to agree to come back here with him anytime. 

"..gotta admit hearing you tear into that guy was something else," he said, looking at you with a little admiration in his eyesockets. "didn't know you had a set of claws like that, kitten."

"Yeah, well. His face was dumb and he had the nerve to suggest we'd be soulmates or something," you muttered.

"...."

Red was silent for a moment, a strange look on his face before he gave your hand another squeeze.

"don't need anything else down here, do ya doll?" he asked rather quietly and you shook your head. Weird.. but..

"Nope! I got to see a cool record store with my handsome skeleton, met his rad co-worker and got him his cool new record," you said, watching the red creep into his cheeks again. "That's all I need."

"alright kitten, then hold on tight."

That same warm rush filled you and left as quickly as it came; the scent of smoke and firewood now filling the entrance of your home as you opened your eyes. 

"oh hey. there you two are," Sans said from the couch, a bag of cheese puffs on his chest. "was wonder' where you went."

"ya'd know if you had checked yer phone," Red grumbled slightly while taking off his sneakers before heading upstairs to put his record away.

"..whoops. a lil' grumpy, huh? trip go ok?" 

"It went fine, got to see the record store finally. Was really cool," you said, taking off your heels. "..Until we met Gale."

"eugh," Sans muttered, his usual grin falling into a frown. "wait. he didn't give you a hard time or anything, right?"

"Just tried flirting with me even after I shot him down,saying we might be soulmates and then tried to insult me," you said, shaking your head. "Yeah, right. Not even in his dreams."

"...."

Sans was silent for a moment too, and you decided to pocket that word for a conversation later.

"huh," he said before throwing another cheese puff into his mouth. "well, remind me to blast him next time we see him."

"it's too late! i'm already callin' dibs!" Red shouted from upstairs.

"No! Nobody's blasting anyone!" you said with a laugh. "I'm not about to break either one of your coccyxes out of jail for incinerating someone!"

"..yo," Red said appearing at the top of the stairs, getting your attention. "ya both.. wanna come listen to this thing?"

"Sure!"

"hell yeah."

You spent the rest of the afternoon snacking on cheese puffs, snuggled up between the two of them in Red's room as he talked all about the groups' storyline (which was apparently very involved and a big staple in their performance) and their discography. It was nice to hear him talk about his interests _sans_ -wiched between your skeletons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here is the very first drabble i wrote for this series! i decided to go back and write it again from scratch because it's technically a few months old now when i jotted down the idea, but it was fun to go back and re-structure the three short stories i wrote for this into a more concrete idea. hope you enjoyed! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡


	4. snacks & wine.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT THE THREE OF YOU ARE DRUNK."

"ahuh," Sans said, laying on the living room floor, a mess of snack wrappers and empty bottles surrounding him.

"AT TWO IN THE AFTERNOON."

"THAT TIME ALREADY?" Black mumbled, face first into a pillow on the ground next to you.

"WITHOUT ME," Blue finished with a small huff, patting your head as you laid in his lap.

"I'm sorry baby," you sniffled, head completely fuzzy off of all the wine you managed to drink. 

You hadn't really planned on this. 

...Errr, well.. kinda. 

You had planned on spending the afternoon with Sans and Black, drinking down some of the wines you received from a wine subscription box and indulging into everything from junk food and cookies, to fruits and a whole charcuterie board filled with meats and cheeses. You even had a full playlist of bad conspiracy theory videos, Wheel of Fortune reruns and documentaries that the three of you wanted to watch together to top it all off. Building a small fort of blankets and pillows in the living room to hide away took up most of the morning, and by noon you were all set for your day of drinking and snacking. What you didn't plan on was how _absolutely smashed_ you would get by this point in the day. It had only been two hours since you three of you started this little party. 

How did you get here again? 

Oh, right.

"It's Sans' fault," you mumbled as Blue continued to gently stroke your hair.

"hey that's-" he retorted, but quickly went quiet for a moment. "actually yeah, that's fair."

"HE TOOK COMPLETE ADVANTAGE OF OUR SLIGHTLY INTOXICATED STATE TO CHALLENGE US TO A COMPETITION," Black said, not bothering to lift his head. "ONE THAT WAS COMPLETELY BIASED AND UNFAIR."

"YOU WOULD OF COMPETED WITH HIM EVEN IF YOU WEREN'T DRUNK," Blue said, narrowing his eyesockets at Black.

"TRUE," he said. "WHICH IS EXACTLY HOW HE TOOK ADVANTAGE OF ME! HE KNOWS I WILL NOT BACK DOWN FROM A CHALLENGE, NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCE."

You could hardly stifle your drunken giggling and Sans seemed more than content being the bad guy in this situation. Sure enough, all it took was for Sans to say 'bet' before you were all pounding down drinks.

"Are you sure you have to leave, Blue?" you asked, glancing up at him. He looked contemplative for a moment before pouting. He had just gotten off work for the morning and returned home momentarily to find you three heatedly arguing about if aliens really had built the pyramids or not.

"YES, I GAVE MY WORD I'D HELP ALPHYS AND UNDYNE RE-ORGANIZE THEIR MANGA COLLECTION," he mumbled. "AND AS MUCH AS I DON'T WANT TO NOW, I AM STILL A SKELETON OF MY WORD."

Darn him for being so reliable. 

"WITH ANY LUCK I WON'T BE GONE LONG," he added, and you carefully lifted yourself up from his lap before landing back into the blanket pile beside Black. "I WILL BE ENTRUSTING YOU, MY DEAR, TO PREVENT ANY SHENANIGANS FROM HAPPENING."

"A TERRIBLE IDEA, REALLY," Black retorted and you huffed. "SHE'S DOES NOTHING BUT START TROUBLE."

"Hey!"

"yeah, she's troublemaker number one," Sans replied, and if it wasn't for your intoxicated state you might have actually thrown something at him.

"THE QUEEN OF TOMFOOLERY!" Black added, finally pulling up his flushed skull from his pillow to grin at you.

"Well it's a good thing I have my court of clowns surrounding me then," you grumbled and received a rather playful glare from him.

"I AM NOT DRUNK ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH YOU GOBLINS, SO I AM LEAVING," Blue said, placing a kiss on your forehead before doing the same for Sans and Black. "BEHAVE! AND REMEMBER, NO SHENANIGANS!"

A quiet settled between the three of you as the front door shut.

"i can't believe he called us goblins," Sans snickered after a moment.

"I BELIEVE HE WAS LOOKING AT YOU WHEN HE SAID THAT," Black huffed and Sans raised a browbone.

"oh? does that make you the clown then?"

"FOR MY QUEEN?" Black asked, glancing your way. "YES."

"hear that sweetheart? black's simpin' for ya."

"Can we please get back to the documentary, oh my GOD!" you coughed out, trying to settle down from your laughing fit. These two were too much, and if you laughed any more you might _actually_ bust your gut. 

"FINE, BUT I STILL FAIL TO SEE HOW 'CARING ABOUT SOMEONE'S FEELINGS' IS USED AS AN INSULT," Black, muttered flipping back around to lay on his back.

"I don't get it either. Frisk said it's popular on those streaming channels or whatever," you shrugged. Maybe you were just getting old, but kids had the weirdest lingo nowadays. "Just pass the remote please, I really want to finish this Wheel of Fortune episode."

"THE GOBLIN HAS IT." 

"hm? i thought you had it last, your majesty," Sans said, looking over to you.

...Huh? 

Wait.. did you?

Somehow you mustered up the strength to sit up and glance around. Between the mountain of pillows, snack wrappers and blankets in the fort it wouldn't be surprising if it got lost somewhere in the mix. Sure, your memory was a little fuzzy too with all the alcohol, but you didn't remember having it last. So where did...?

...

"Uh," you said, glancing at a pile of blankets towards the TV that was ...wiggling? "Are one of you guys doing that?"

"....NO."

"nope."

Huh.

As if on cue, a fluffy little dog butt poked out from the small pile of blankets, it's tail wagging wildly as it got itself untangled from the mess.

"WONDERFUL, IT'S THAT DAMNED DOG AGAIN," Black hissed, sitting up beside you. He still looked a little woozy with that flush of purple on his face, but that didn't stop him from glaring down the white fuzzball.

"oh look at that. they've got the remote."

Well, that explains it. 

This poor pooch, named the 'Annoying Dog' by Papyrus, had been just about the biggest mystery that came bundled with these skeletons. The brothers didn't own the dog, nobody did apparently, and they really had no idea where it came from. They came and went as they pleased, always finding a way to sneak into the house even if it was completely locked, and just enjoyed giving the boys the go around by stealing anything they found interesting. Sneakers, slippers, keys, pillows, pieces of elaborate puzzles and traps, and now apparently your remote. Well, thankfully the dog seemed to like you at least, so this should be an easy exchange.

"Aww, hi Anno!" you said, and the dog's ears picked up, looking at you happily as it drooled all over the remote in its mouth. "Who's a good dog!"

Them, apparently, from the way they bounced a bit, their tail now going mach speed and it looked at you with glistening dark eyes. 

"DON'T LIE, THAT DOG IS A MENACE," Black muttered and you shushed him.

"Don't listen to Mr. Grumpy over there, you're a good dog!" you said, patting your lap while the skeleton next to you grumbled. The dog stared for a moment, taking just a small step forward..

..before completely darting out of the room.

"AH! YOU-"

"Anno!"

Both you and Black had made the motion to get up but the rush of vertigo you got from your drunken state was almost nauseating, making you both stagger. Yeesh, this was bad. 

"welp, guess it's gone for good," Sans said and you glared at him while holding your head. The lazy bastard had made little efforts to get up at all, just laying in his pile of snack wrappers and pillows. "kinda surprised your charms didn't work on 'em, though."

"Yeah, me too," you mumbled, rubbing your forehead. 

Anno had never stolen anything of yours, and you were usually the one who negotiated with it to get back the boys' stuff from them. It's why you believed the dog at least liked you in it's own strange kind of way. This was probably the first time they didn't come when you called, and having that kinship broken kind of hurt your heart a bit. 

"WELL UNLESS YOU PLAN ON CHANGING THE CHANNEL YOURSELF OR BUYING A REPLACEMENT, I SUGGEST WE CAPTURE THAT RAT," Black said, finally composing himself and tapping his chin thoughtfully.

"Uhh.. I dunno if we can really give a good chase like this," you said, still feeling the world spin. As much fun as it would be to stumble after the dog, the boys had a hard time grabbing them even with their shortcuts. There was no way the two of you could keep up with it now.

"NO, WE CAN'T," Black admitted before putting on a bit of a wicked grin. "BUT WE CAN CONVINCE IT TO COME TO US!"

"Oh?"

"...Oh," you said, looking at the almost comical 'trap' Black had constructed in the kitchen. It was a box on a stick attached to a string with a pizza lunchable underneath it. It was.. rather underwhelming considering you knew what Black was capable of when it came to complex and elaborate trap making.

"I don't know what I was expecting," you admitted and the skeleton stood up with the string in hand.

"I KNOW, YOU'RE LEFT SPEECHLESS BY MY INGENUITY AND CREATIVITY AND ARE WONDERING JUST HOW YOU MANAGED TO _ROPE_ YOURSELF SUCH A WONDERFUL DATEMATE," he said rather sarcastically as he took your hand lead you around the corner so the both of you could hide and wait.

"What can I say, you really _captured_ my heart," you snickered, planting a kiss on his temple. "But uh, do you think this will really work?"

"YES, I DO," he admitted rather adamantly. "IF THERE'S ONE THING I CAN INFER FROM THAT DAMNED FLUFF BALL IT'S THAT IT ENJOYS TAKING THINGS WE DEEM IMPORTANT."

"..And the pizza lunchable is of course the most important thing we have," you said, unable to hold back your giggling. It was so sad it was true. Those things went faster than anything else in the house. The fact that there was even still one remaining after your first few days of grocery shopping was shocking.

"YES. I'M GLAD YOU'RE KEEPING UP DARLING," he said with a cheeky grin as you heard a rustle around the corner. Black was quick to pull the string back as you heard the box fall, and you both quickly rushed over to the kitchen. You could feel the smugness almost radiate off the skeleton as he delicately pulled the box up.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU, DARLING?" he asked and you gave a small shrug. 

"Alright, alright, so sorry for doubting. I just can't actually believe that wor-"

....

"Sans." 

"yo," he replied rather lackadaisically, laying on the kitchen floor with the lunchable in his hands as Black lifted the box off of him.

"...GIVE ME ONE REASON WHY I DON'T ELBOW DROP YOU RIGHT NOW," Black growled, his grin now turned into a tight frown that was twitching on the corners. His eyesockets were empty as he glared down at Sans, who was now sweating a bit.

"uhhh, cause you love me?"

"WRONG."

The air went a little frosty before you heard a small pinging noise. You missed the impact, just catching the sounds of a loud grunt and the clattering of bones while something small and white caught your attention from the corner of your eye.

"Ah! Anno!" you called, and the dogs' ears perked up, the remote no longer in it's mouth. It seemed happy to see you and quickly approached with a wagging tail, it's tongue flopping out of its mouth. You bent down to pick up the dog as it let out a small yip and they quickly jumped into your arms. Oh, now they want to be chummy, huh? 

"Where the heck did you take the remote, buddy?"

You heard another yip in reply, except..

This one came from across the room.

....Oh.

"THERE'S TWO OF THEM!?" 

"that explains a lot," you heard Sans wheeze out from underneath Black. Apparently he managed to blue magic Sans' soul before he could port away just to give him the People's Elbow. Poor guy. Only had himself to blame, though.

Having two dogs certainly explained why that dog darted off when you called. So wait. If Anno was in your arms then.. who was this?

"Was there always two of them?" you asked, glancing between the dog with the remote and the one in your arms, who was gazing up at you happily. Was this.. an alternate reality Anno? (It felt silly that it was your first thought, but you couldn't really blame yourself..) Or just another white dog?

"d- ow! dunno..!"

"IT- ARGH! IT DOESN'T MATTER! GIVE IT!" you heard Black grunt out as he struggled with Sans over the lunchable. 

"never!"

You didn't want to laugh, but watching your boyfriends wrestle over a pizza lunchable was not exactly how you thought this afternoon would be going. It was a short scuffle before Black had Sans pinned and grabbed the box, tossing it towards you. Thankfully your reflexes were good enough even while slightly drunk to catch it with one hand while holding on to Anno.

"Here good puppy! I have something for you," you said, crouching down and shaking the box. It's eyes went wide and it quickly approached, tail wagging happily and dropping the remote in exchange for the lunchable. Anno let out a bark as the other dog took off towards the hallway, the box in it's mouth.

"how could you?" you heard Sans sniffled rather dramatically at you as you put the remote on the counter.

"GLAD TO SEE YOU'D BE WILLING TO PUT UP A FIGHT FOR A DAMN LUNCHABLE," Black growled, still on top of Sans. "BUT NOT FOR THE REMOTE!"

"because it's worth it-!"

The front door swinging open made you all jump.

"HEY! I SAW THAT DOG JUMP OUT OF A WINDOW WITH SOMETHING IN ITS MOUTH, IS EVERYTHING OK-"

Blue paused while entering the house to glancing at the three of you, his expression going from surprise to concern and then annoyance. Red was standing behind him, letting out a laugh at Black and Sans.

"what tha fuck are you two doin'? ahaha!"

Blue's eyelights were directed towards you as he puffed out his cheeks a bit and crossed his arms.

"I THOUGHT I SAID NO SHENANIGANS!"

"Well uh.." you started, petting Anno and trying to avoid Blue's criticizing gaze.

"I TOLD YOU SHE DOES NOTHING BUT START TROUB- GAH!" Black choked out as Sans managed to get an arm free and began tussling with him again. 

"oh? are we fightin'?" Red asked, walking into the kitchen with a wicked grin on his face.

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOU-"

"wait red-"

You turned back to Blue with an innocent gaze as you heard two loud grunts and another clattering of bones. He also looked like on the verge of laughing but did his best to keep up his disappointed look on you.

"...hey," Axe's voice called, catching your attention. He took one quick glance to the three scrapping in the kitchen before looking at you and Blue. "...found something."

Oh?

Blue and you took one glance at each other before heading back out to the front door, following behind Axe. He seemed a little concerned which was.. worrying.

"WHAT DID YOU FIND? IT'S NOT SOMETHING BAD IS IT?" Blue asked as you shut the front door behind you. Didn't need that other dog getting in again while those three were fighting.

"....dunno," Axe said simply. "..guess it depends."

Okay, well, that was concerning. The three of you quickly headed to the side of the house where a line of bushes sat before a fence. It was a little dense, but Axe got down on a knee and lifted away some of the shrubs.

You both gasped.

"OH MY GOD."

"What!?"

There was that dog again, laying on the ground with... 

a whole litter of puppies.

The dog let out a happy yip, one that Anno replied to by jumping out of your arms and joining the little nest. You.. almost couldn't believe it. Anno was a dad!?

"...saw them run to the bush, figured they took something," Axe said as both you and Blue also sat on the ground to admire the little family. "...found them instead ....and an empty lunchable?"

"Oh uh, yeah," you said a bit sheepishly as both Axe and Blue gazed at you curiously. "I'll explain it later."

"WOWIE. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.." Blue said softly, his eyelights turning to stars as he looked at all the puppies. They looked to be only a few weeks old. "HOW DID WE NOT EVEN NOTICE THEY WERE HERE? IN OUR SHRUBS? I JUST TRIMMED THEM A FEW DAYS AGO!"

"..cause they weren't," Axe said. "..they must've only just brought them here."

So.. is that why Anno had been missing for a few weeks? You hadn't questioned it before, they always came and went as they pleased but.. this had definitely been the longest amount of time you had gone without seeing the pooch. Guess it made sense if they were helping to take care of a whole litter.

"..their last spot must've been unsafe," Axe added, reaching out to scratch Anno's head. The dog seemed more than happy at the contact, and the puppies let out quiet little yips as they laid near their mom. So they brought them here? Well, the fact that they considered your house to be safe enough to bring their puppies was so incredibly heartwarming you almost wanted to cry, but you had more important things to be doing. Like-

"WHAT SHOULD WE DO?" Blue said, suddenly looking concerned. As much as you loved the idea of providing for Anno and their family, there was no way you could take care of a whole litter of puppies. Not to mention Black or Red wouldn't be totally pleased with the idea considering how much of their stuff Anno has taken off with before.

"I'll call a shelter. It'll be best for all of them to make sure they're healthy. Do you still have the number for the one you and Pyrus volunteer at, Axe?"

"..mhm," he said, handing over his phone.

Blue and Axe set off to get a box with blankets to put all the puppies in as you made a call to the shelter. They were more than happy to take Anno and the 'Other Dog' and even offered to pick them up within the next few hours. Only thing left to do was round them all up and wait. 

Anno and Other seemed more than okay with letting you near the puppies as you carefully scooped them up and placed them in the box, making sure they were warm and safely inside. Axe managed to track down the bag of dog food you all kept for Anno, and the two dogs quickly scarfed it down. Made sense why Other were so quick to trade now, poor dog must've been looking for food this whole time. 

"STARS ABOVE I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE ARE MORE OF THEM NOW," Black muttered as you all sat in the yard with the little family.

"one was bad enough, now they've got a whole damn crew," Red grumbled, still reaching out to pet Other fondly on the head. As much as these two loved to gripe about the dogs, you knew they actually cared for the pooches, even if they didn't want to admit it.

"WELL I FOR ONE AM HAPPY FOR THAT ANNOYING DOG," Blue said, glancing down to the box with all the puppies inside, a cute grin on his features. "THEY'RE ALSO MAKING A LIFE FOR THEMSELVES ON THE SURFACE!"

"good for you, bud," Sans said, petting Anno as they laid in your lap.

"...they'll be in good care," Axe added. It’s true, the animal shelter Pyrus and he volunteered at was probably one of the best in the state. They'd get all the care they needed until they were old enough, after that who knew? Maybe there'd be families willing to adopt. Stars knows they were cute and friendly enough.

"But.. knowing them, we'll probably be seeing them around," you giggled. Black and Red let out a grunt in response, while Axe and Sans just snickered. 

If only you knew how true that would be..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the second original drabble i wrote for party of six, with a few more touch ups! it felt nice to write something silly, although i stumbled with the dialogue for a bit. i think i suffer from overthinking about things, so when i stepped back and just relaxed without worrying so much it all fell together rather nicely. thank you all for the comments and kudos too! i love reading them and it really motivates me to write more!


	5. sandwiches & timelines.

"I Just Don't Quite Understand Why They Feel The Need To Put Their Whole Life Story Before The Recipe," Pyrus huffed as Axe passed over a bread slice with a sandwich spread on it. 

"Well they are technically food blogs," you said, taking the slice and neatly arranging some veggies on it before sliding it over to Pyrus. “Guess that’s where the blog part comes in.”

He let out a sigh as he placed the top slice on and quickly wrapped up the completed sandwich in parchment before placing it inside the box.

“Still, It Was Almost A Whole Term Paper's Worth Of Writing!" he groaned as you three continued your assembly line of sandwich making. "It Took Seven Pages To Print!"

You did your best to swallow back a laugh while placing some more veggies onto another bread slice as Axe quietly cackled beside you.

"And Yes, I Am More Than Aware That I Did Not Need To Print Everything, But The 'Print' Button On The Website Apparently Decided That I Needed A Physical Copy of 'The Little Kitchen's' Entire Childhood Story For My Own Keeping!" Pyrus added. 

"...gotta know the story behind the lemonade, bro," Axe said, lathering up another slice.

"Helps to really bring out the _zest_ ," you added with a giggle. Pyrus paused for a moment to shoot a glare in your direction. 

"..knew there was a reason you were my main _squeeze_ ," he said, shooting you a wink.

"Do Not Even Start, Or I Will Request Another Station!"

The two of you snickered some more as you continued your assembly line. Axe and Pyrus had made it a point to volunteer often as part of their rehabilitation into society, and today they were helping with assembling and packaging food for the new timeline that had recently made their appearance. 

The still unnamed eighth timeline was talking politics with the government, and were currently stationed at a small camp at the base of Mt. Ebott near the monster embassy until they could get proper citizenship to allow them into town. The city was providing temporary shelter, food, water and other accommodations while things were being sorted out, and depended a lot on community donations and volunteer work to help. You liked to tag along with them when you had the free time. It felt good to take part and help in any way you could, plus you liked the quality time with Pyrus and Axe. With so many of you in this strange little family, it made the one on one time like this harder to come by.

"Any idea what the new timeline is like yet?" you asked, changing the topic. 

Even though the new timeline just recently made their appearance and were being quarantined off in another area, the people of this city loved to gossip. You were sure there were at least some rumors floating about. The volunteer centers were always the hotspots of latest news when it came to new timelines too, being in semi-direct contact with them.

"Well, From What I've Heard They Aren't Hostile Like The Fells, Swapfells Or.. We Were.." Pyrus said, hesitating slightly. You did your best to give him a reassuring smile, which he returned. "But, Other Than That Not Much. They've Mostly Just Been Talking. It's Nearly Been Three Weeks!"

Usually it only took about two or so week for peaceful timelines like Blue's to work everything out, but on the other end it took nearly two whole months for Axe's to be figured out between all the grants, therapy and rehabilitation talk before they had to spend a whole year under government supervision and care to be allowed into the city.

Three weeks really wasn't a lot of time, but you couldn't help your curiosity getting the better of you. Normally they at least had a name by this point. Of course, the names of a timeline weren't anything official, but calling them by their government appointed numbers wasn't exactly.. cute, so.. nicknames they were given. Some chosen, others given (because truthfully if given the option you were sure that timeline three would've called themselves Horror, of all things) but it at least gave an idea as to what they were about or what they were like.

"...heard anything from the kid?" Axe asked and you simply shook your head. Frisk and you texted on the regular, but with the new timeline showing up your poor buddy was probably swimming in ambassador duties. All of the other ambassadors were still rather young and usually were just there to represent their own timelines if need be. 

Frisk was the oldest, and the one who represented both the first timeline and the one you all currently resided in. It was a lot of responsibility to shoulder for a tween, but they did it all in stride. Maybe you'd text soon to check up on them, just to make sure they were okay.

"I don't want to bother them too much right now, besides I'm sure things will work out. They always do," you said.

"It Is Rather Exciting, Isn't It?" Pyrus added, adjusting his glasses. "Both Outer And Farm Brought So Many New Things With Them When They Arrived, I'm Sure This New Timeline Will Have Something Just As Wonderful!"

You always appreciated Pyrus' positive thinking.

Along with Outer's incredible advancements into space travel and the fact that you were using the vegetables Farm had grown just right in the outskirts of town to make these sandwiches, each timeline had always brought something new and exciting to the table. Surely this one would be no different. 

The three of you continued to chat as you assembled sandwiches, and before long you were helping to wrap up for the day and clean the kitchen. Many other volunteers chatted about the new timeline too, but it was all the same stuff. Not much info, but they seemed friendly.

Only time would tell what they're really like.

"Let us know how the lemonade turns out, ok?" you said to Pyrus, outside of the volunteer kitchen. "And maybe you can use the rest of the pages as kindling for the bonfire next weekend. I'm sure Undyne would love to have more stuff to burn."

"Actually, That's Not A Terrible Idea!" he laughed. "And If This Lemonade Turns Out As Magnificently As I Know It Will, I Will Bring A Batch To The Party!"

"...sounds good bro," Axe said, holding on to your hand. "..say hi to mett for us, yeah?"

"Of Course! I Love You Both Dearly, Be Safe!"

"...you too paps."

"Love ya!"

The three of you parted ways as you walked with Axe, enjoying the late afternoon air. The town was busy as usual, the hustle and bustle of life surrounding you two as you wandered to the bus stop. Taking shortcuts everywhere with the boys made life incredibly convenient, but moments like these, just walking hand in hand with Axe, made you appreciate taking the long way every once in a while. Beautiful flowers lined the streets and trees were decorated in wonderful leaves of green. Clouds littered the big blue sky, and you closed your eyes for a moment enjoying the breeze that rolled by. 

The moment was cut a little short as you felt Axe tug your hand slightly, leading you over to an ice cream stand on the sidewalk. You were unable to resist the cute pleading smile he gave you. Of course you were going to say yes, how couldn't you not say yes to that face!? It was a short exchange with a bunny monster as the two of you munched on ice cream sandwiches, hand in hand as you continued your stroll to the bus stop.

"I wonder if we should bring anything for the party," you said thoughtfully, taking another bite of your ice cream sandwich.

It was just a week away. Between everything else going on you hadn't talked about it much, but you could tell everyone was excited. It had been awhile since most of the timelines got together, and you're sure it was going to be a blast.

"...i'm sure blue and black got something planned," Axe replied. "..got somethin' in mind?"

Well, with how many people were in attendance, food would most likely be no problem. Still..

"Kinda," you said with a shrug. "Just have a lot of memories of making s'mores during the summer as a kid. Might be fun to make some since we're already going to be having a big bonfire."

"...oh?" he asked, looking curious. "..what are they?"

"They're like.. sandwiches?" you said, almost laughing as you wiggled the ice cream sandwich in your hands. "Except not really. You roast a marshmallow and put them between two graham crackers with a piece of chocolate. They're a mess but it's a lot of fun to make and really tasty."

"..nice."

"I think I had more fun incinerating the marshmallows over the fire though," you admitted and he let out a snort, finally arriving at your bus stop and throwing your ice cream wrappers away.

"...heh, didn't know you were a little arsonist," he chuckled.

"Well! To be fair, what kid doesn't want to just.. I dunno.. set things on fire!" you added, glancing across the street to the park. It was rather packed today.

"...what adult doesn't?"

"Both a fair and valid point, but adults do it bigger than just marshmallows," you said rather thoughtfully. "Probably why Undyne bought all those wooden pallets just to set them ablaze for this party."

Axe squeezed your hand slightly and you found yourself gazing down at him. His red eyelight was glancing toward the sidewalk and he looked.. contemplative.

"You know you don't have to go if you don't want to," you said softly. 

You've had this conversation before, when the invitation was given. Axe still had reservations around Undyne and all of her counterparts, usually avoiding most get-togethers if they were present and just attempting to stay away from them as much as possible. You couldn't blame him after what the Undyne of his timeline had done. 

She had hurt him. 

Badly. 

But, he had confessed to you one night that he hated running away from this problem. Even if his Undyne wasn't around in town anymore, having moved away from Ebott to somewhere quiet and isolated, he didn't want to keep treating the others like her. Because they weren't her. Everyone is their own unique person, and they have done nothing but try to treat him like a friend.

"...i'll be okay," he said softly, giving your hand another squeeze. "..paps will be there. you and everyone else too."

You couldn't help but feel proud of him. Of course you didn't want him to push himself too hard, but you could see he was trying. He wanted to do better. To be better. Axe let out a small sigh as his shoulder slumped slightly, so you bent down to give him a kiss on his temple. His grin softened a bit as he gazed over to you, and you gave him a smile.

"..don't wanna keep missing out on stuff ‘cause of my fears," he spoke. "...still regret missing out on that bake sale."

Ah yes, the now infamous bake sale that had taken place to raise money for monster studies and rehabilitation awareness. That quiet and peaceful evening had turned into a whole battleground of a food fight after one stray cream puff went flying and landed on Asgore's head. Axe had stayed back that night and had all five of his datemates return home covered in everything from pies to cakes, donuts and even icing. It was fun, except when you had to clean all of that cream and sugar out of your hair and out of your car. 

It made you sad to still see him upset about missing out on things like that.

"Then, I'll just keep supporting you on whatever you want to do," you said simply. He looked happy. The corners of his eyesockets crinkled a bit as he leaned up to give you a kiss.

Axe would probably still be tackling these doubts, fears and issues for the rest of his life. Even if he had made amazing progress in these past few years, improving his speech dramatically from single words to being able to have full conversations and tackling his intense paranoia, there were going to be lasting effects of his trauma. He still suffered from night terrors. He still sometimes struggled with crowded places. He still hated strangers touching him.

But he was trying. 

He was volunteering at shelters and food kitchens. He was attending therapy, both on his own and with Pyrus. He was going out of his own comfort zone, and trying new things with you and the boys. You were so incredibly proud of him for all that he accomplished. More than anything you wanted to continue to support him. To be there for him, to let him heal at his own pace and to help him back up if he stumbled or to be a shoulder for him to rest on.

He deserved that.

"...thank ya, pumpkin," he said gently, a soft shade of steel blue on his cheeks.

"Of course!"

It wasn't long before the bus arrived and the two of you found an empty bench in the middle row. You took the window seat and found yourself admiring nature and people walking outside while Axe rested his skull on your shoulder. He liked to take a snooze on the bus ride home, and always said your shoulder was the most comfortable to sleep on. Considering your competition were a bunch of skeletons, you felt like it was somehow stacked in your favor being a squishy human.

Either way, it made you happy. You heard him let out a very quiet snore, which told you he was actually sleeping this time, not just resting his eyes. As beautiful as it was outside, you decided to carefully put your head on his while minding the crack in his skull. It didn't hurt, he had told you plenty of times, you just didn't want to startle him awake by touching somewhere so delicate. Moments like these where he actually slept were rare, only something he did if he felt safe.

The bus ride was a little long and uneventful, taking you all the way from the center of Ebott City to the quiet suburbs, but enjoying a quietly peaceful moment with your boyfriend like this was nice. Shame you had to wake him up now by poking his cheek.

"...careful," he mumbled sleepily. "..ya might lose one."

"I know you're not going to bite me," you giggled as he lifted his head off your shoulder.

"...not unless you asked," he flirted and you rolled your eyes with a smile.

"Get up you dork or we'll miss our stop."

After a few moments of playful contemplation he gave in and eventually got up. The two of you sauntered off the bus to a much more empty bus stop than the one in town, except for one lone skeleton.

"AH, I WAS BEGINNING TO WONDER WHERE YOU TWO WERE," Black said, dusting off his dark jeans as he stood up.

"Here to escort us home?" you asked.

"YES! WE'RE TAKING A SMALL BREAK FROM PURGING THE HOUSE OF DIRT," he said, taking Axe's other free hand in his own as you all walked. "NEARLY DONE, JUST NEED TO TIDY UP THE BACKYARD. I FIGURED I COULD AT LEAST BOTHER TO MAKE SURE YOU BOTH RETURN HOME SAFELY UNLIKE SOME _OTHER_ SKELETONS."

You let out a laugh, feeling bad for Sans and Red. They had been roped into helping Black clean now that Blue had been called in to work at the bakery today. Those two boys were probably exhausted from scrubbing every inch of the place under Black's meticulous eyelight.

"...need any help?"

"UGH. YES, PLEASE," he groaned. "I SWEAR THEY ACT LIKE I'M TORTURING THEM."

"Well you do run a tight ship," you added, trying to cut those boys some slack. You also liked to think you were.. somewhat tidy, but Black seemed to notice every molecule of grime in the household.

"...maybe you should be more _anchoraging_ ," Axe added, with a grin.

"..THAT WAS ACTUALLY A _FERRY_ IMPRESSIVE PUN," Black complimented, looking genuinely proud as you nodded in agreement.

"...thanks," Axe mumbled a little sheepishly, that steel blue color on his cheeks again.

"Might be in the running for Pun Master this year if you keep it up," you giggled.

"I THOUGHT WE DECIDED TO FORGO THE COMPETITION AFTER LAST YEAR'S ARGUMENT," Black said, raising a browbone at you.

"We've all grown since then! We can handle a little friendly competition again," you said, defensively. "..I think."

That got a laugh out of the other two. Eh, maybe you could just wait one more year before bringing back the battle for the title of Pun Master.


	6. april showers & may flowers.

The two of you ran quickly to an empty bus stop, finally finding some cover from the sudden downpour of rain. The once bustling streets of Ebott City had cleared out rather quickly after the first few drops, most people taking cover inside shops and underneath store awnings, and a few smart ones who had umbrellas on hand to take shelter from the droplets of water that now fell down in sheets all around you. 

You were not so lucky.

"Damn you Channel Six weather," you huffed, letting out a few short breaths from your unexpected jog. You took a seat on the metal bench, glad to be out from the rain with your hair now sticking to your face and your clothes now clinging to your form. Your cute outfit had been soaked by the rain, and you tried to wipe away the droplets of water that were sliding down your neck from your wet hair. The air smelled heavy of rain and thunder crackled ominously in the distance, and you continued to curse out Channel Six for their false weather report.

"SO MUCH FOR CLEAR SKIES," Blue sighed, pulling at his white button-up that now stuck to his bones. You could now see the faint outline of his rib cage underneath and the subtle glow of light blue magic that held this skeleton together. He had used himself as a shield for the reusable bag that held all of your library books, and thankfully they seemed to make it out okay. Last thing you needed was to damage all the new books you just checked out. 

"You figure they could've seen a storm like this coming, huh?" you asked as Blue took a seat next to you, setting the bag of books underneath the bench and scooting closer when he saw you shiver. It was still spring and the day had been pleasantly warm before, but now with the rain you could feel a slight chill in the air that sent goosebumps over your damp arms. You did your best to provide some warmth by rubbing them, but it wasn't doing much good with how soaked you were. 

"I CANNOT CLAIM TO KNOW MUCH ABOUT METEOROLOGY, BUT I CAN ONLY IMAGINE IT IS DIFFICULT TO PREDICT," he said, pulling out his phone and scrolling through it. 

Alright, that was fair. 

You weren't exactly the science type yourself, even if you were great with numbers, so for such a big storm to just appear all of the sudden must've just been some stroke of bad luck on your end. The two of you were on a date to the library to return books and check out some new ones before grabbing lunch at a new restaurant Blue had seen on social media before returning home.

It had started off wonderfully, the two of you taking the long way of walking around town, enjoying the sights of spring all over the city and each other's company. Blue happily talked about his work at the bakery, mentioning all the new hires they had brought on board to deal with their surge in business. Sugar Coated had gained a lot of popularity in the past few months after it took off on social media, being a much more trendy and modern joint compared to all of the old-school bakeries around town. Katie, the owner, just seemed to be a marketing whiz, and always came up with such interestingly delicious creations.

They sold everything from breads to cakes, cookies and pies, and even began to branch out to serving coffees and other specialty drinks, expanding to include a cafe next to it's old storefront. Blue had gone from just a clerk working the front counter to a full fledged baker, and you could see how much he enjoyed it as he practically gushed about the new types of bread loaves he got to come up with for this week. The library had been peaceful, and you had turned in some of your dorky romance novels for new ones, earning yourself a few teasing remarks from Blue. You were a sucker for period romances, alright? Who didn't want to be a damsel swept off their feet by a knight or dashing prince? 

It had been a really nice afternoon.. at least.. until the rain started after you two had begun your walk to the restaurant and you two had to make a mad dash for cover.

That part kinda sucked.

"AH, THERE YOU ARE!" Blue said, tapping a few times on his screen as he pulled up his inventory. Before your eyes a blanket materialized and he stood up for a moment to throw it around both of your shoulders.

"Oh! Wow, you still have this?" you asked as he sat back down and you cuddled a little closer to him. It was a light blue blanket decorated with little stars, something you had bought when the six of you had gone camping all over the country two years ago.  
Stars, it was hard to believe it was actually two years ago now..

"YES! WHY WOULD I EVER GET RID OF IT?" he asked, before looking back at the blankets, his face scrunching up a bit. "ER, WELL IT MAY NOT BE IN PEAK CONDITION ANYMORE BUT THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF WONDERFUL MEMORIES ATTACHED TO IT. I'D HATE TO EVER THROW IT OUT."

The poor blanket had definitely seen better days. It was worn, the once bright colors now faded to a dull shade of blue and it was not nearly as soft as it once was from how many times it had been thrown into the washer. Some of the edges were frayed and the corner was torn after a bear had almost taken off with it, but Black had rather expertly sewed it back on. There were some signs of old stains from using it to sit and eat on, and from having warmed you all through the cold nights sleeping in that old tent.

"I think I can still see that ketchup stain from Sans," you said with a laugh as you played with the corner of the blanket.

"URGH, I DON'T THINK I'LL EVER QUITE FORGIVE HIM FOR THAT," Blue huffed, now inspecting the corner you were picking at with careful eyelights. It was one of the first stains that had made its way onto the blanket, and since then it had only acquired more. It was well loved, and you were thankful that he still had it on hand to use instead of freezing your ass off as you two took shelter. 

"I really miss that trip," you said softly, a rush of memories hitting you. It had been a rather sudden decision with little planning, just a few carefree months with all six of you packed away in your car, driving all over the country as you traveled and took in the sights. The boys had only ever seen the limits of Ebott City, and so, after all the talking you did about seeing more, you finally decided to just pack up and go. So many nights filled under starlit skies, so many beautiful sights as you hiked and camped at national parks and little hideaways, and so many wonderful memories as you all slept together in that cramped little tent. 

You liked to think that trip had been the biggest turning point in your relationship with everyone, where the six of you had really come together and solidified what you had was very real, not just a temporary fling, and something you wanted to last for a very long time. All of your fears, worries and hardships were shared over campfires, as well as all of your hopes and dreams for the future. It was fun, and the picture you all took together under a beautiful night sky was still your phone background even after these two years.

"ME TOO," Blue said, leaning against you as you both watched the rain fall. "IT FELT LIKE WERE IN OUR OWN LITTLE WORLD, AWAY FROM IT ALL AND JUST ENJOYING OUR TIME WITH EACH OTHER. I GOT TO LEARN SO MUCH ABOUT EVERYONE, BUT NOW LIFE CATCHES UP WITH US A LOT AND WE DON'T GET TO SPEND ALL OF OUR TIME TOGETHER."

You were all so busy now with work, family and friends, and your own personal commitments that life really did feel like it was passing by. Everyday still felt like a new adventure though, and even if you weren't experiencing exciting new sights and sounds at every waking moment, you enjoyed your quiet life here in Ebott. It was fun, and your heart was full with love and happiness. What more could you want?

"Maybe we should plan another trip soon," you said, reaching for his hand and linking his fingers with yours. "I think I could use a little vacation from work."

"YES! WE SHOULD GO SOMEWHERE WITH A BEACH! SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE AND WE COULD ALL DO WITH SOME TIME OFF!" Blue said, gazing up at you with those stars in his eyesockets. He was too cute.

"Maybe like an island getaway?" you asked, unable to help the smile that crossed your face.

"THAT WOULD BE WONDERFUL! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY SURFBOARDING AND WOULD BE THE PERFECT CHANCE TO SEE ALL MY CUTE DATEMATES IN SWIMSUITS!" Blue grinned and you let out a laugh. 

"Wow, didn't know you wanted to see us exposed so badly," you teased, cocking an eyebrow at him.

"OH PLEASE, DO NOT THINK I DON'T SEE THAT LOOK IN YOUR EYES. YOU WERE THINKING THE SAME EXACT THING," Blue criticized, shaking his head and letting out a small 'tsk tsk' at you. You snorted. Of course you were thinking about also seeing all your cute boyfriends in swimsuits! How could you not!?

"Alright, alright you got me," you said with a giggle. "Still, if that's the case, it's a shame you guys have to miss out on the pool party this weekend."

"YES, WELL, IT CANNOT BE HELPED," he said, frowning slightly. "I HAVE A FEELING HER HIGH MAJESTY QUEEN TORIEL IS HOSTING THE EVENT _SPECIFICALLY_ BECAUSE THE FELLS WEREN'T _TECHNICALLY_ INVITED AS PART OF THE WELCOMING COMMITTEE... AGAIN."

"Which is still rude on the city's part," you added with a shrug.

Sure, the Fells and Swapfells were intimidating, but they weren't bad monsters. Even with the introduction of Outer and Farm, they were still never invited to be a part of the welcoming committee for new timelines. Then again, neither had Horror, but there were so few of them and they always had to go through an examination mandated by the government anytime another timeline was allowed into the city, so they technically had an excuse as to why not invite them.

"YES. YES IT IS. BUT, THAT WILL NOT STOP CLASSIC AND I FROM WELCOMING THE NEW TIMELINE WITH OPEN ARMS, EVEN IF I WILL SPEND MY TIME THINKING OF YOU THREE IN SWIMSUITS!"

You laughed as he wiggled his browbones at you, placing a smooch on to his temple.

"And you'll keep us updated on what they're like, right?" you asked, playfully. Blue had always blabbed to you right away about new timelines after they met, and you hoped he would do the same for this one. So much time had passed and yet there was still so much you didn't know about them.

"HAVE NO FEAR MY DEAR! I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE THAT YOU ALL STAY UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST INFO AND GOSSIP SURROUNDING THESE NEW FACES, SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE I KNOW JUST HOW NOSY YOU ARE!" he said proudly, with a hand on his chest.

"Hey! That's...not.." your voice trailed off slightly and you pouted at the rather smug expression on his face.

"NOT TRUE?" he asked, almost daring you to retort the statement with that infuriatingly cute but pompous grin on his face and a mischievous gleam in his eyesocket.

You let out a huff and he laughed, placing a kiss on your cheek.

"FORGIVE ME MY DEAREST, I JUST CAN'T HELP BUT TEASE YOU! YOU'RE TOO CUTE," he said, placing another kiss on your cheek.

"Yeah, you're lucky you're so cute too or else I may not be so forgiving!" you mumbled and he beamed. 

You could really never be mad at Blue, even if he was teasing you. He was just too sweet and too thoughtful, and he never made any serious japes at your expense... and you were rather nosy, that you couldn't deny. 

The dull roar of the rain had settled slightly into more of a drizzle, and you found yourself admiring the town as it glistened under the raindrops. It was pretty, as colorful umbrellas passed by with both humans and monsters huddled underneath to stay dry, and the cool breeze was forgotten under the warmth of the old blanket as you two huddled together.

"If.." you started, breaking the small moment of silence. "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you want to be?"

It was more of a curious question than anything. Even with your trip around the country, there was still so much of the world these skeletons hadn't seen yet. Whole new continents and cities to explore, new places and people to meet. So much more to experience. If given the chance, would they..?

"WHY WOULD I WANT TO BE ANYWHERE ELSE BUT RIGHT HERE?" he asked, now looking curiously.

Your mouth opened and then quickly closed, your face going from a look of surprise to amusement as you laughed.

"That's-! That's not what I meant," you said, snickering. "I just meant like.. if you wanted to travel anywhere."

"I KNOW," he retorted simply. "THERE ARE MANY PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT AND SEE, BUT YOU DID ASK WHERE I WANTED TO BE. AND THAT WOULD BE HERE, SOAKED TO THE BONE UNDER AN OLD BLANKET AT A BUS STOP WITH MY HUMAN DATEMATE."

You didn't have a reply. 

Your face was feeling warm as you stared down at him, that mischievous grin making it's way back on to his cute features as you obviously blushed at his admission. 

Argh! This skeleton! He was just too cute! 

That was just supposed to be a harmless question, but leave it to him to spin it back to something soulfelt like that!

"ANYWHERE THE WIND TAKES ALL OF US, WHEREVER AND WHENEVER THAT IS.."

"Wait, stop-"

"THAT IS EXACTLY WHERE I WANT TO BE."

"Nooo! Blue-!"

"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE VERY MUCH, AND I WANT TO STAY WITH ALL OF YOU!"

"Blueee!" you cried, giving him big puppy dog eyes and he chuckled. "My little human heart can't take these cheesy words!"

"WHAT A SHAME, BECAUSE THERE'S PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!"

"Nooo!" you laughed as he nuzzled your face, throwing your arms around him as you cuddled. "Can't we at least eat lunch before my heart explodes with all this love?"

"I WILL CONSIDER IT," he said, your cheeks now touching. "ONLY BECAUSE THE FOOD AT THIS PLACE LOOKS LIKE IT WILL BE AMAZING AND I WOULD HATE FOR YOU TO MISS OUT!"

It's true. Apparently it was a small shop that specialized in artisan grilled cheese sandwiches and soups. How the hell could you not be excited about that?

"I wanna stay by your side too," you said and he let out a small hum.

"WELL, WITH HOW MAGNIFICENT I AM, HOW COULD YOU NOT?" he said, ego practically dripping from his tone.

"Wow." 

"KIDDING! I AM ONLY KIDDING!" He laughed as squeezed you a little tighter and you giggled with him. Stars above you really loved this skeleton. You wouldn't mind if it rained just a little longer so you could snuggle with him some more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i couldn't resist writing a short about getting caught in the rain, and blue was just the perfect boy to write it for! these next few chapters will probably take me a little longer to write out since they contain some more plot elements and i have other side drabbles i've been writing out that i hope to post once they're finished. as always, thank you for all the wonderful comments and kudos! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡


	7. fears & reassurance.

You were incredibly tired. 

Work had been such a rush today filled with paperwork, office gossip and the daily battle with numbers and maybe you were starting to get a little burnt out of it all. It wasn't a terrible job by any means, sitting in a nice cushy office with plenty of benefits to boot, but it didn't really make you happy. Today had really driven that home, and you found yourself barely keeping your eyes open despite getting a full night's sleep last night. The six of you had all been watching a movie together and you nearly snoozed right through it with Sans, and you found yourself wondering where the sudden exhaustion came from. Maybe all of the thoughts that were recently buzzing through your head? 

You had recently brought up the idea of moving, and all the boys seemed to be in agreeance that maybe moving somewhere bigger would benefit all of you. It didn't go much farther than that, but it was progress. You also still had the word 'soulmate' pocketed from that kinda weird day when you went with Red to get his record. 

He had been oddly quiet about it when you brought it up before, which you thought was strange, and when you brought it up again to Sans he had also seemed to take it rather weirdly. For humans at least, soulmates were just someone you were supposed to have a natural affinity with, right? Like you were made for, or maybe destined to be with or something?

Then again, monsters had different terms for a lot of things, so maybe it meant something more to them? Datemate was a term they all used for you, so was soulmate the next step in that equation?

You hated to admit it but there was still a lot about monster culture you didn't know. Even having been in a relationship with Sans for so long, and having four other monster partners to boot, there was a lot you hadn't really asked about. It's not like you wanted to be ignorant, and you've been learning more and more as you've spent time with all of your boyfriends, but you also felt a little bad having been with them for a few years now and still not knowing more. But what kind of questions could you ask, really? Where would you even begin?

The bright florescent light of your bathroom was almost blinding as you squinted at your freshly washed face. You let out a small sigh as you dried off with a towel and grabbed your toothbrush. No sense feeling bad about it, but you knew the thought of it was going to preoccupy your brain. Didn't have a sleeping buddy with you tonight to distract yourself with. 

It seemed silly at first, to have a light schedule of who would be bunking with who on what nights as to keep it even between everyone, but it worked out rather well. Each boy got a day of the week and you had a free day to stay with whoever or by yourself. Having it be six days meant that your days were always rotated too, getting to spend lazy weekends with each of them.

Sometimes it was nice to have a chance to have your own space too. You loved all the boys dearly, and of course you knew they loved you too, but having your own rooms and own chances to breathe and be alone were nice. The six of you each had a spot that was just yours, that you could do with and decorate how you desired, and escape whenever you needed a chance to think. 

It was good... except.. on nights like tonight, where your quiet and empty room seemed more menacing than you wanted to admit.

You brushed your teeth while scratching your stomach, dressed in just an oversized t-shirt you bought from one of the concerts Red had taken you to, while trying to sort out your head. You spat the foam out and rinsed, just hoping your mind wouldn't stay up too late. Work was still going to be busy tomorrow too and you did not want to fall asleep at your desk just because you were stressing yourself out all night with thoughts of jobs, moving, and asking about soulmates. Another yawn made its way out of you as you flicked the lights off and headed out of your bathroom.

You were greeted with a dark room and a.. lump in your bed.

Someone was completely buried underneath your comforter. 

Strange, you thought you were sleeping alone tonight. Nobody had asked to stay with you. You made your way over to your side of the bed with your arms crossed as you tilted your head at the lump, deciding to take a shot in the dark (haha) and guess who it was.

"...Sans?"

"hm?"

Kinda weird that you knew it was him. You stared for a moment but he didn't say anything else, so you lifted the covers and slid down in your bed beside him making yourself comfortable. He was laying on his chest with his head buried in a pillow, but he turned his skull just enough to peek at you with an eyelight.

"sorry, i'm uh.. kinda intruding huh?" he mumbled. 

"I don't mind," you said, reaching out to stroke his skull. He seemed to deflate a little more into your bed, closing his eyesocket as you carefully caressed him. "Something on your mind?"

Normally he at least asked about staying with you on your solo nights before hopping into bed. It's exactly why you knew something was bothering him.

"just the same thing as usual this time of year," he huffed softly, a look of admiration in his eyesockets as he gazed at you. 

A small hum of understanding found its way out of you as your fingers danced along his skull.

"Five years huh?" you asked, a little amazed yourself as he let out a small breathy laugh.

It would be nearly three weeks until Sans' and your dateaversary, making it five whole years since the two of you got together. 

So much had happened since then. 

It had just been the two of you at first, forming a very close friendship ever since the day monsters arrived on the surface six years ago. He was so reserved at the time, usually keeping to himself about a lot of things and just cracking a joke or two. It left you curious about him, and you found yourself drawing to having conversations with him about.. anything really. 

First the stars and memes, then interests and hobbies and little inside jokes, and then more about yourselves and the lives you had both lived. In those late nights texting back and forth, and the chats you had sitting with him on Tori's back patio on their weekly get togethers, you saw pieces of a cute and wonderful monster underneath the facade. In just the few months following you had found yourself pinning after the quiet, pun loving skeleton like crazy, but you two had become so close as friends you didn't want to ruin it all.

Imagine your surprise when he had it just as bad for you.

A confession, under a starry lit sky, sitting on the back patio just drinking some ciders after a heated game of Uno. Everyone was still inside arguing who should have won. Frisk did, of course, the determined little punk managing to come up from behind and finally put the hours long game to rest. You had come out for some air and Sans followed right behind, sitting close as you both drank and admired the constellations. 

Your hand has brushed against his when reaching for a drink, and as you apologized, he took it in his and held it. You were probably as red as tomato, which matched his bright blue skull as he finally confessed he was going crazy over you. Always admiring how pretty you were, always spending nights awake coming up with jokes just to hear you laugh, always loving every moment the two of you punned at each other, always sleeping in the sweater you had loaned him because it smelled like you, and always having to restrain himself from holding your hand every time they brushed.

It was the most embarrassing moment of your life. 

You had never fallen for someone so fast and so hard in your life, just a few months shy of the surface-versary for monsters, and you never imagined in your wildest dreams that he would have felt the same way. Sure you had crushes in the past, but they paled in comparison to what you had felt for Sans for nearly a year. The two of you came clean with your feelings, laughing at how the two of you could have been so incredibly dense over each other before sharing a small sweet kiss. You agreed to go steady with him, and now here you were laying beside him five years later.

"i dunno how you put up with it all," he said with a laugh, burying his skull back into the pillow. You felt a small frown form on your face at his morose tone. 

"I don't," you retorted simply, which got him to look at you again. "I love it. Every minute of every day, even when I roll my eyes or get annoyed. Even when I get mad about you washing the colors with the whites, or leaving your socks in the hallway, or eating my snacks. I don't 'put up with it'. I enjoy it."

His skull turned blue as you spoke, and you smiled at him.

"I enjoy it because I love you," you added.

"i love you too," he mumbled without hesitation.

You knew. It's exactly why he always had these thoughts this time of year. So much had happened. So many memories, so many stories, so much laughter and pain and sadness. So much growth. So much loss.

So much life.

"i know it's silly. we've come so far without any incident," Sans sighed softly, turning on his side to face you more, so you cupped his cheek. "and.. i trust the kid. i believe them when they say that we're here now. that there's no going back. it's just.."

You carefully scooted closer to Sans, closing your eyes and letting your forehead touch his as you gently stroked his cheek with your thumb. 

The fear of resets.

Of losing everything. The first time he told you about it all, it had scared you too. He had awoken one night while staying over, panicked and afraid, calling out for you. So many tears. So many broken sobs as he shook in your arms, terrified he had lost you. That they had gone back underground again after finally making it to the surface. It broke your heart watching him come undone like that, holding him and try your best to comfort him from the nightmares and the terrors that plagued him.

"i worry that maybe someone will surface who can reset it," he said, feeling his cool breath as he spoke. "these other timelines just keep coming, and with it they might just bring around someone who had more determination than this world and.. take it all back."

You never had a good comeback for these talks. 

It was still a lot to wrap your brain around, after all. 

Resetting had been a.. curse, placed on to the mountain from the mages who had sealed monsterkind away to keep them locked within a loop of suffering. The one with the most determination would wield it's power and with it they could go back in time, resetting the whole underground into certain moments at their whim. Everything would be lost, full days and weeks just wiped away within a moment, only leaving a sense of deja vu behind in the minds of monsters who suffered through its power. 

It was terrifying, and you couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of fear it instilled in Sans when he began realizing that his life was looping like that. Even if this world had proved to have more determination than Frisk, or any of the other monster ambassadors who had once held that power, he was still afraid.

Who's to say that someone wouldn't just show up and take it all away one day?

"sorry," he said gently and you pulled back a bit to look at him. "i just hate how every time i feel like i get over it, these thoughts always come creeping back into my skull."

"You shouldn't apologize for that, you know," you murmured. "Being afraid isn't something you should ever be ashamed of. There are so many scary things in this world, and you went through something that no one should have to go through."

He closed his eyesockets as you kissed his forehead, placing a hand over yours. 

"The fact that despite everything you still choose to live and to love rather than letting it stop you from enjoying life shows how far you've come."

"well, i'd certainly hate to miss out on all this," he said, looking at you sweetly again. Oh this skeleton knew just how to make your heart beat faster. "not gonna lie, i uh.. didn't really have much of a picture of what life might be like once we made it to the surface but everything's really been like a dream. lots of love. lots of support. lots of healing and fun. it's all become so important to me, you and everyone else, that i don't think i could ever just give it all up."

His fingers reached out to touch your face, that wonderfully soft look in his eyes again.

"i love you very much, sweetheart."

"I love you too, Sans."

You absolutely peppered his skull with kisses, unable to hold yourself back anymore and his body shook with a laugh.

"hey, you're going to make me want to call out tomorrow if you keep that up," he chuckled and you found yourself smirking at him.

"You'd do that anyways so don't try to flatter me," you murmured as you planted another kiss on his cheek.

"yeah you're right. but, you're going to want to make me force you to call out tomorrow," he said, grabbing your wrists and pushing you down on the bed. Sometimes you forgot how strong he was as the back of your head hit the pillow, gazing up at him with a small flush on your cheeks. Ah great, now he was looking smug. Welp.

"cause you know what i wanna do?" he asked, leaning down and kissing you softly on the lips a few times.

"Sleep in all day?" you questioned in between a kiss, a smile tugging it's way on to your features.

"mmm, ya know me so well, sunshine," he said, giving you one more long lasting smooch before flopping down beside you again.

"You're such a tease!" you giggled, still feeling the heat in your face.

"listen, i don't think we wanna wake the whole household by banging your headboard against the wall or else you really won't be making it to work in one piece tomorrow," he retorted and you let out a groan.

"I'm starting to wonder how I do actually put up with you," you huffed, covering your face with your hands and he laughed.

"it's because you love me," he teased.

"I do and there's nothing that can change that!" you complained. Five years with this bonehead was proof enough of that. You laid there, slowly removing your hands from your face as Sans snickered beside you, realizing that maybe right now might be a good chance to ask..

"Hey," you said softly.

"hm?"

"I uh.." you started, turning to face him again as he glanced at you curiously. "I wanted to ask you something."

"a suspicious way to approach a subject, but okay," he said, raising a browbone. 

Yeah okay.

That was fair. Usually that kind of lead into a conversation meant something bad but, you swore you only had good intentions. He looked slightly worried, so you decided to just get out with it and spare him the suspense.

"I wanted to ask you about soulmates."

His eyesockets went wide for a moment as he looked at you, eyelights seeming to take in your expression before he went oddly quiet again.

"I knew something was funny with that word when both Red acted weirdly about it," you stated, now looking a little irritated.

"er, well no! there's nothing funny with it.." Sans started quickly before looking slightly flustered. "believe me, it's like the most unfunny thing there is."

Your expression fell as he spoke and he let out a somewhat small sigh, rubbing his neck bones as he thought for a moment. 

"you know, it's times like this that i realize we really are from two different species," he began, his fingers reaching out to play with a lock of your hair. "well, i mean it's obvious you're a human, but you just fit in so effortlessly into our lives that i forget that there's stuff you don't know about monster customs."

"Doesn't help that a few of you are so naturally secretive and the rest have the emotional capacity of a potato," you jabbed and he snickered.

"yeah, okay. that's fair. i mean, it's not like i intent to keep things a secret from you sweetheart, this is just something monsters usually learn early on in life and it's uh.. a little embarrassing to talk about," he said, twirling your strand of hair in his hand.

"You're stalling," you said flatly.

"heh. normally i love that you're so _sharp_ , but you're really glaring some serious _daggers_ right now," he said, eyelights slightly glancing away from your accusatory gaze. "it's _cutting_ kind of deep."

"Sans."

"alright, alright. uh.. maybe we can start with.. what do you know about soulmates?"

"Well, for humans, it's usually tied around the story that there's someone out there who's like.. your other half," you began. "Like someone who has a key to fit your lock, and has a lock to fit your key. You complete each other and sometimes they say you're destined to be together. But it's usually just stories, there's no physical proof that soulmates exist in this world or anything."

"huh, okay, so we're not too far off base," he said, letting go of your hair to look at you. "that destined stuff is kinda spooky though."

"Oh?" you asked, now looking curious.

"maybe it's just a personal opinion or maybe it's just a monster thing but.. one thing they teach us early on is that no one is made for each other. it's not like we were brought into this world with someone else in mind. there is no absolute perfect match for you. that love and relationships take work and struggle, and that at times it'll be hard."

You gazed at him, noticing the flush of blue on his face as he continued.

"for us monsters, being made up of our souls means we feel everything with our whole bodies. even emotional damage can hurt us physically." 

You couldn't help but think of Sans' HP. Papyrus had told you before that it hadn't always been so low, but the time in the Underground had.. done it's toll on him.

"so they teach us that early on to save us some of that soulbreak. because a lot of us have a desire to feel love and to have those feeling reciprocated. but, just like you humans, we all fall on a spectrum, some of us want to pursue it and some of us don't, but for those who do we begin by pursuing a datemate. in some cases it's just one person, or in ours it's several."

Monsters were much more accepting of these sort of.. non traditional relationships. To them it wasn't anything unconventional or out of the ordinary compared to the traditional human relationship of one partner. You remember the initial conversation you and Sans had about polyamory and how it was a pretty normal thing for monsters when you both first considered bringing Red into your relationship, as well as how most of your monster friends had quickly accepted your little group for what it was. Telling your human friends and family had been a little more.. difficult. Of course humans had their own polyamorous relationships, but the standard one partner thing had really made it hard for others to be accepting of it.

"the intention of pursuing one or several it to.. eventually uhhh.. soulbond with them."

That made him flush a bit brighter.

"it's about.. taking a part of yourself and uniting it with someone else. it's a kind of ceremony that allows two or more people to form a physical bond that connects them together, one that takes months of uniting your souls together and allowing it to form. you get to feel their emotions or know when they're close by. you get to experience what they've felt and see what they've been through. for us monsters, that bond is what allows us to reproduce with someone else, and signifies that this is our partner for life. it's very exposing. vulnerable and personal thing. that's why.. when i heard you say that gale guy said that to you.... i couldn't help but feel pissed off."

He let out a small huff, still looking a little angry. It.. all made a lot more sense now. To call someone your soulmate must've been almost the equivalent of calling him your wife, but even then this seemed so much deeper. A real, physical connection between souls that would bind you with someone. Forever? Wow. No wonder these two had been so strange about it. You would've been pissed too! But.. now the question was.

"So you want to be soulmates?"

Sans only stared for a moment before quickly grabbed the pillow from underneath his head and threw it on top of his face. He squeezed it and you just couldn't help but laugh. Oh Stars, this dork was embarrassed. You could still see the glow of his magic now radiating from underneath his white t-shirt, illuminating his rib cage with a blue light.

"you.. can't just! ask that!"

"I can't? But you said if you pursue a datemate then you wanted to be soulmates right? You all call me and each other 'your datemate', so what else am I supposed to assume?"

"i mean..! humans enter a relationship with an intention to.. marry right?" he asked, his voice muffled from the pillow. "you basically just asked me if i wanted to marry you."

"Do you want to marry me?" you asked, a smile on your face.

"...i can't believe of all the places you're choosing here to propose," he stated and you laughed again.

"What? But laying in bed is your favorite place in the whole world!"

"touché."

"So.. do you not?"

There was a small pause and you felt your heart squeeze in a strange way. Ah, so that was it then. He didn't want to-

"more than anything i do."

...

"Huh?" you asked, almost completely on instinct. Your brain hadn't really computed what he said as he slowly pulled the pillow down off his face and hugged it close to his chest.

"i want to be soulmates with you sweetheart. i do. i really do. stars above, how could i not?"

The sincerity in his hushed words and the bright blue flush of magic that covered his skull and most of his bones made you feel like you were sitting back on that porch again under that starry night sky when he first confessed to you. Your face was on fire again and you're sure you were as bright red as a tomato, and he gazed at you so sweetly and so filled with love that you could feel your heart pounding in your chest.

"it's.. difficult though. normally in the underground you're given a leave for this kind of thing, where you can spend your time with your soon to be soulmate to really invest and form this bond together. here on the surface, we're still trying to fight for something like that. we're all so busy with our lives and our jobs, that taking the time to soulbond is harder now, and i don't want to half-ass this. none of us do."

"..You've uh.. talked about this with everyone?"

"a lot."

"Oh."

Oh. 

Well.

Huh. 

You're pretty sure you've turned a few shades redder as Sans basically admitted that not only did he want to soulbound with you, but so did everyone else. That.. should have been obvious right? He just said soulmates were a lot like getting married, and you had admitted to yourself that you would totally be okay being married to each and every one of these boys. So.. why were you getting so flustered now? 

"Do you think we can't?" you asked, almost now concerned.

Another paused, but Sans didn't seem distressed by the question, just rather thoughtful.

"no, it's not really a matter if we can.. believe me my soul is giving me shit every day that we don't. it's uh.. rather.. when we can set aside time. that's what we mostly talk about. that and uh.. how we were going to all broach this subject with you... together, like a proposal of sorts, but i _kiiiiinda_ fucked that up."

Whoops.

Now you feel a little bad for basically forcing that out of him.

"S-sorry!" you said rather sheepishly and he just smiled at you.

"s'okay sweetheart. it actually feels a little nice to just finally tell you, although i'm never going to hear the end of it," he sighed, seeming to deflate a little and you giggled.

"What else is new, right?" you asked playfully and he shrugged.

"what can i say? i just have a way of getting on everyone's shit list," he said, gazing back at you again with that admiration in his eye. "but hey. i was here first, so i think i have the right to claim the first admission."

"Wait. Oh no. Am I going to have to go through four more cheesy admissions of love now?" you said, pretending to be annoyed and letting out a groan. "I think my heart really may just implode."

"yup. this is what you signed up for. this is your life now. no take backs," he said and you let out a fake sniffle. "also i want the bed in your will."

"I knew you were only in it for my king sized mattress."

"yeah. i mean the human that came with it was a nice bonus but, this thing is just too comfortable," he said and you playfully swatted at him. 

"You're such an ass," you snickered.

"yeah, but i'm your ass," he retorted.

"I already have an ass!"

"oh believe me, i know."

"Oh my GOD!"

You wrestled with Sans some more as he attempted to squeeze your butt, giggling quietly as you fought back with more kisses which he gladly returned. The two of you would snuggle up before long and you quickly found yourself falling asleep in his arms, the exhaustion of the day finally catching up with you. Five years of dealing with his shit and Stars above you were already ready for so many more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i liked writing this chapter a lot. i love mushy conversations full of love and understanding. (*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡
> 
> i've begun posting some art on there as well, and will happily take writing requests too! thank you, and please look forward to more!


	8. crimes & punishment.

Tense.

That's the only word you could use to describe the atmosphere right now.

It was silent after Sans had finished admitting to spilling the beans to you about the soulmate thing. Not a single word had been spoken, and the once jovial and joking atmosphere had turned strained in a matter of moments. You glanced at Sans, who had guilt written all over his skull as he sweated under everyone's heated gaze, regret rushing through you like a tidal wave. Sure, this all wasn't necessarily your fault, but this emergency group meeting was now turning into more of a death sentence than a discussion and you couldn't help but feel terrible for poking your nose around. At the very least Sans had made good on his word of telling everyone right away about what he told you the other night.. But.. 

Being on the receiving end of those darkened stares was probably terrifying.

Your mouth opened again, almost on instinct, to try to take some heat off of him by taking the blame for how things turned out, but the way everyone's eyelights snapped on to your face before you even had a chance to get a word out made you laugh nervously instead and quickly shut your mouth.

Looks like Sans was on his own with this one.

"why does it not surprise me ya'd be the one break, eh classic?" Red asked, going back to glaring down the sweating skeleton. If looks could kill, he'd probably would have been done in four times now by the way everyone had been looking at him.

"HONESTLY! AND HERE I THOUGHT WE COULD TRUST YOU THE MOST!" Blue huffed, rubbing a hand over his skull.

"EVEN IF HE'S THE BEST SECRET KEEPER HERE, HE HAS THE SAME WEAKNESS WE ALL DO," Black retorted, his arms firmly crossed as he impatiently tapped a finger in irritation. He was also sparing Sans no expense with a very nasty look.

"..i think he even has it worse," Axe added, that red eyelight of his burning into him.

You had a feeling that implied 'weakness' was you, guilt striking you again and a frown found its way on to your face. I mean, it's not like you held him down and forced him to answer any questions, but you also knew that Sans or any of the other boys rarely kept things from you unless it was really something important. If he had evaded the question you just knew you'd go asking around elsewhere until you got your answers. Just like Blue said awhile ago, you were rather nosy and a rather determined little human.. But.. Still.. 

You felt bad for Sans.

"hey. she had me pinned and threatened to squeeze my skull between her thighs until i answered."

You no longer felt bad for Sans.

"Wow," you said flatly and everyone else just kept glaring at him. The joke was not well received.

"AND YOU _DIDN'T_ TAKE THAT OFFER?" Blue asked, almost looking shocked. "I FIND THAT VERY HARD TO BELIEVE."

"...is that still on the table?" Axe asked and earned a sputtering laugh out of you.

"i'm callin' dibs if it is," Red piped up as Axe lightly jabbed him with his elbow.

"...first come, first serve."

"sorry, it was a one time deal for me only," Sans retorted with a wink, earning a renewed stare down from the others. His cheeky grin melted into a more nervous one as he defensively put his hands up. "err right. um, guess i should be saying sorry for something else. my bad?"

"it is your bad you dumbass," Red muttered, letting out a grunt. "seriously of all things to let slip."

"AND WE HAD MANAGED TO KEEP QUIET FOR SO LONG," Blue groaned, puffing his cheeks slightly as he pouted. 

He probably had the cutest angry face you'd ever seen, you just wanted to hug him.

"IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER," Black growled. "WE WERE TAKING TOO LONG TO DECIDE."

"Decide?" you echoed, now looking to him rather curiously. Black regarded you for a moment before letting out a sigh, a small flush of purple on his cheeks. You were all sitting in a circle with everyone in the living room, most of you still dressed in work clothes since the meeting was taking place right as everyone got off. 

Blue was still in his chef coat, you were still dressed in some Friday casual office wear, and Sans still had on a lab coat and glasses that were taped to his skull. Axe and Red were lucky to wear their everyday clothes to their jobs volunteering and at the record store, and Black was still adorned in his royal guard uniform, not even bothering to take off his scarf. You glanced around for a moment, noting all of the other boys seemed a bit flushed as a somewhat awkward atmosphere took hold.

"...couldn't bother explainin' everything..?" Axe asked towards Sans who just shrugged.

"figure i could leave at least something for all of us to talk about," he answered, shoving his hands into his lab coat pockets while looking away from everyone's accusatory stares.

Now that curiosity was burning inside you. Black cleared his nonexistent throat, easily gaining yours and everyone else's attention. You were glad he always stepped up to the plate to explain things in detail.

"WHEN... FORMING A SOULBOND THERE IS A LOT TO CONSIDER. EVEN MORE SO FOR US BECAUSE THERE'S SIX OF US WHO WISH TO UNDERGO THE BONDING RITUAL... ASSUMING..."

The way he trailed off while staring thoughtfully at you left you questioning. You then noticed that everyone's eyelights were now on you now, and the realization struck you. 

Oh. 

Wow. 

Right.

You technically hadn't really given Sans an answer, huh? He had openly admitted to wanting to soulbond with you, but you hadn't given a definite yes. Whoops.. 

"If you're asking if I also want to soulbond with all of you, then the answer is yes," you said, and a collective sigh of relief was released in the air.

"...good.. good.." Axe said, scratching his cheek while glancing aside.

"JUST SO YOU KNOW DEAREST, THIS IS NOT NEARLY AS ROMANTIC AS WE PLANNED IT," Blue said, an apologetic look in his eyesocket and you merely waved it off.

"It's ok! If anything I'm actually just kind of excited to be in the loop now," you said with a smile, still flushing slightly at your admission. "Sorry that I still don't know much about this whole process though." 

"...s'okay. we haven't talked about it much with you," Axe said, reaching and giving your hand a squeeze.

"ya'd probably make a good moderator for what we've been arguin' about anyways, kitten," Red added.

"Er.. arguing for what exactly?"

"FOR DECIDING WHO EXACTLY WE'RE GOING TO PARTNER WITH FIRST," Black began. 

Well, that really seemed like quite the conundrum. Hmm.

"Does that matter?" you asked quizzically.

"TECHNICALLY, NO," Blue answered, looking a little thoughtful. "WE'LL ALL BE BONDED IN THE END, BUT THE PROCESS OF ONE SOUL BONDING TAKES A LOT OF TIME ESPECIALLY BECAUSE MOST OF US CAN'T GET TIME OFF FOR IT! IT COULD TAKE NINE MONTHS TO A YEAR FOR US ALL TO BE CONNECTED."

Wow.

That was.. 

That was a lot of time. 

Then again Sans had explained that forming the bond was a rather lengthy process so it made sense that doing five of them would take quite a long time, but an entire year? That means you'd have to spend several months not connected with some while being connected with others. The end result would be worth it but now finally starting to see the road ahead, it made sense why the boys were probably taking so long to decide things.

"..we're lucky we're in an even number relationship," Axe said. Stars, no kidding. You didn't even want to humor the thought of watching all of your other datemates soulbond together while you were just kinda.. left out for a few months. Your little party of six was just the right size.

"Soulbonding is a one on one thing isn't it? Even for a group?"

"yup. each soulbond is a unique tether between two people, even in poly relationships like ours. although we all love each other, the way we feel about each other on a personal level is different and our bonds will reflect that, so we'll have to all bond individually," Sans said. "and uh, deciding on who goes with who first has been a little hard."

The very first person you wanted to be soul bonded too.. That was quite the thought wasn't it? You loved all of these boys a lot, how could you decide that? 

"I am now seeing the issue," you said rather dully, earning a small bit of laughter from them.

"err.. well.. look i know it's cheap and shit, but drawing names really wasn't that bad of a suggestion," Red added, earning a small groan from Blue.

"AND NOT AT ALL ROMANTIC! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BONDING OF OUR LIVES AND I DON'T WANT TO JUST DRAW SOMEONE OUT OF A HAT!"

"..maybe doing it in order of timeline?" Axe added with a shrug. 

"would that put ya in fourth since you're from the third timeline? or sixth cause we met you last?" Red asked with a snarky grin on his skull while Axe face fell slightly as he thought it over. Even though Horror had been the third timeline to emerge, you didn't meet Axe until after Swapfell had been well introduced thanks to their extensive time under government therapy and rehabilitation.

"you managed to create the bedroom schedule black, so why not just make another for our bonding?" Sans asked and Black huffed.

"I'M ALMOST INSULTED YOU'RE PUTTING THESE BOTH IN THE SAME LIGHT. ASSIGNING SLEEPING SCHEDULES AND BONDED SCHEDULES WOULD NOT BE THE SAME!"

"I'm starting to think that drawing names isn't such a bad idea either," you added, glancing over to Red with a small laugh. You were all just running in circles with these ideas.

"see! kitten agrees!"

"DEAREST, PLEASE!"

"...punishment."

....

"Huh?" you asked aloud, everyone now glancing at Axe.

"...for telling pumpkin without us. you get to decide, vanilla. as punishment."

"errrrr uhhh.... i dunno about that one," Sans said nervously, sweating bullets again as everyone looked his way.

"EXACTLY WHY IT WOULD MAKE A FITTING PUNISHMENT," Black added tapping his chin as a rather wicked grin took hold. "BESIDES, YOU JUST TOLD ME TO DO THE SAME THING, DID YOU NOT?"

"uh, can i just decide to make you do it then, blackberry?" Sans asked, a small set of puppy dog eyelights to go with the cute and endearing nickname.

"NO."

The firmness of that denial made Red and you snort slightly, getting a playful glare from Sans. 

"and how am i not going to seem like an ass by just assigning everyone?"

"Because we trust you, _your honor_ ," you said with a smile.

"yeah, ya've got good _judgement_ , classy," Red added with a wink.

"...we'll accept your _verdict_ ," Axe said, and that playful glare turned into a real one at the three of you as you snickered.

"YOU WERE ALREADY IN THE LEAD TO BE THE ALPHA WHEN WE WERE CONSIDERING THE IDEA," Blue said and you watched Sans deflate some more, unable to take the ray of sunshine that was his bright smile. "SO IT'S OBVIOUS WE ALL TRUST YOUR DECISION MAKING SKILLS!"

"YOU BETTER NOT DISAPPOINT," Black added, the cold frown on his face and the glare in his eyesockets a stark contrast to Blue's beaming expression.

"no pressure or anything.." Sans added, slowly leaning back to lay on the floor and you were back to feeling bad for him again. "you're cruel ya know that axe?"

"...i try when i feel like it," he said with a bit of a wolfish grin on his features. "...on another note, how are we going to propose now?"

Oh no.

"Can I just accept this moment as you all having given me a loving and cheesy confession so my heart doesn't explode?" you asked, glancing around the circle nervously.

"no."

"...nah."

"NOT A CHANCE!"

"AFRAID NOT, DARLING."

"Oh Jesus Christ I'm going to die," you sobbed, covering your face with your hands as your cheeks heated up again. Sans' admission had already been so sweet and wonderful that you probably could've gotten a cavity from it, and sitting here now discussing something so incredibly important as bonding with your boyfriends for the rest of your life was already making your heart pound in your chest. Now you had to sit through four more of these cheesy love proposals! Nooo! What were you even going to confess in response!? Ahhh! You were the worst when it came to receiving affection! Guess that was a curse spread among all of you, so eager to give and so hesitant to receive.

"WE CAN DO IT ON OUR OWN TERMS NOW SINCE CLASSIC GOT HIS VERY OWN PROPOSAL!" Blue said, glancing to you with stars in his eyesockets. Ohhh boy. 

"What about to each other?" you asked, turning three shades darker, trying to deter the conversation. It seemed a little unfair to suddenly be the center of attention like this... but, if they had been talking about it for so long.. then surely..?

"already did that," Red said with a small dismissive wave. "remember when you were dog sittin' fer yer aunt or whatever?"

"Uh, yeah?"

Back two months ago? 

...You loved your family, really you did, but they had still been a little.. weirded out by your rather unique situation of dating both a monster as well as the multiple timeline variations of that very same said monster. They never really liked monsters in the first place, evident by the fact that many of them moved after they appeared out of the mountains. The interactions between you and them were minimal for that very reason, but you didn't want to shut them out of your life completely.

Case and point, doing a favor for your aunt by watching her dogs while she and your uncle went out of town for the weekend. 

They were just about the only two who seemed alright enough with what was going on in your life to still talk to you from time to time, so you did your best to maintain relations with them. It was an easy enough task, just staying at their place and keeping an eye on their two elderly dogs and making sure they get their medication. The solo time had been rather nice, and when you returned the boys had admitted to having a small date night together, but never gave you many of the details.

Guess that explains why.

"blue got completely destroyed off some echo wine and bawled about how much he wanted to soulbond with everyone," Sans said from the floor.

"I ONLY CRIED A LITTLE!" he quickly countered, skull turning a shade of light blue. "AND IT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOU AND RED WERE SOBBING ABOUT HOW LUCKY YOU WERE TO HAVE SO MANY LOVING DATEMATES IN YOU LIFE!"

"because we are!" Red retorted, turning bright red as he admitted something like that so casually. "and that is only because black was tearing up over axe saying how much he appreciated him."

"THAT'S-" Black started, going through a full facial journey as the rest of you stared at him.

"..it's cause i do appreciate him."

"THAT'S-!!!"

This poor tsundere. He was frowning now as his face scrunched together, gritting his teeth and a bright purple flush taking over as he glared at the rest of you. You could almost feel the smugness radiating off everyone else at his embarrassment. It wasn't often Black was at a loss of words, just usually when he was on the receiving end of some wholesome love and appreciation, which he rightfully deserved.

"I can't believe I missed out on the mopey lovey dovey talk," you said, putting a hand over your chest and enjoying your sweet flustered boys. They were all so cute.

"...well, you'll get your own soon."

"Aha ha ha.. please have mercy on me," you cried, slowly laying down to rest your head in Axe's lap. You were more than okay surrounding yourself with some blushing skellies, but you did not want to be the one doing all the blushing yourself! Jeez!

"we still don't have much of a time frame for this, do we?" you heard Sans ask as Axe lightly stroked your hair.

"THE SURFACE-VERSARY EVENT IS COMING UP SOON IN A FEW MONTHS AND THINGS DON'T SEEM TO BE SLOWING DOWN LONG AFTER THAT," Black said, a wave of stress washing over him. 

The Royal Guard were the ones who coordinated a lot of these events with the city, and the Surface-versary was the biggest event for monsters. It was a week-long celebration full of fun and events as it tried to celebrate each and every timelines arrival, and the new one was just going to add more monsters to the mix as well as more people who were going to travel to the city. You're sure, even with it being a few months away, that the Surface-versary had Black and everyone else in the Guard swimming in paperwork and stress. Not to mention the upcoming pool party, bonfire party, your anniversary with Sans.. Then soon after would be your anniversary with Red.. Stars above you were busy. When did life get so busy!?

"so basically we don't have any damn time," Red added, crossing his arms and looking a little pissed. "why don't we just get started now that we've got doll in on it?"

"I think Sans might need a few days to decide at least," you said, glancing over to his slumped form still laying on the ground. His small groan let you know that you were in fact right. 

"...s'not like we're going anywhere," Axe added, poking your cheek. You pouted slightly looking up to him and he grinned at you.

"THERE REALLY IS NO REASON TO RUSH ALTHOUGH I DO ADMIT I THINK WE'RE ALL EAGER TO START," Black said, tapping his chin. "PERHAPS AFTER THE SURFACE-VERSARY? THAT WAY EVERYONE CAN GET IN THEIR OWN PROPOSALS AND THE BASTARD WITH A LOOSE JAW CAN MAKE HIS DECISIONS."

"love ya too black," Sans retorted.

Just a few months then? Doesn't seem too hard.

"THE TIME WILL HELP US CLEAR UP OUR SCHEDULES TOO!" Blue added. "ALTHOUGH.. ALL OF US BEING CONVENIENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR A FEW MONTHS IS GOING TO BE.. SUSPICIOUS."

There seemed to be another group sigh and you found yourself glancing around again.

"Oh uh.. guess nobody else knows?" you asked.

"we wouldn't tell anyone else before tellin' ya kitten," Red said. "although a lot of nosy brothers have been pokin' their heads around and askin' tons of questions."

Ah, your trusty investigation crew. If you weren't able to get anything out of your boys you could always count on Papyrus, Boss, Papy, Pyrus and Rus to join you in some good old fashioned inquiry. They were all a lot more keen than they let on, Papyrus especially, so it wasn't a surprise they might've been doing their own asking and investigations about what exactly was going on.

"WE'LL CROSS THAT BRIDGE WHEN WE GET TO IT," Black huffed. The six of you already had a lot on your plate to deal with, and announcing a soulbonding was giving you a lot of the same vibes as announcing a marriage proposal, so there'd be a time and place for all that. 

"...unless someone wants to run their mouth again."

Everyone's gaze went right back to Sans.

Oof. 

Just couldn't catch a break could he?

"i'm sorry," he said. "..kinda."

Alright, maybe he deserved it.

"jackass," Red muttered and you let out a giggle.

"HONESTLY," Black agreed, shaking his head. The both of them glared down at Sans who no longer seemed to give a shit.

"I'LL FORGIVE YOU THIS TIME BECAUSE I LOVE YOU," Blue said, giving Sans a firm pat on the skull.

"aww... blue," Sans said, his eyelights watering a bit as he reached up to give him a hug.

"BUT YOU'RE ON THIN ICE!" he added, pulling Sans close as he smushed their cheeks together.

"he's gonna _melt_ under the pressure," Red muttered to you and Axe.

".. _snow_ doubt about it."

You snorted again. Oh well, things usually didn't go as planned for the six of you. That was just a fact of life you were dealing with on the regular, but it usually all worked out in the end so strangely you didn't feel yourself daunted by the tasks ahead. The only thing you could do now was keep on living.. and half wait in anticipation and half wait in dread for these proposals. Ugh. Your poor little human heart could only take so much..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've begun drafting up my next idea to write about after hunstman and even posted some art for it. thank you very much for reading and please look forward to more!


	9. pools & group chats.

It was surprising how hot it was today. 

Then again, spring was finally coming to an end and summer was just waiting around the corner. You sat in a plastic kiddie pool on Her High Majesty's front lawn wearing a cute swimsuit, the cool water feeling nice against your skin as another warm breeze rolled by. 

Red sat beside you in the pool, your legs over top his as he let out a yawn, sporting some red swimming trunks but not bothering to take off his gold rings or chains. There was laughter and screaming in the air as an all out war going on between the Fells and Swapfells; water balloons flew, squirt guns were shot and insults were thrown between the two opposing parties as they chased each other all over the front lawn. 

Boss and Black seemed determined to settle the age old question of which of the Fell timelines was the superior one, and now armed with summer toys the battle had begun in full force. It had started out fun enough, but soon things were starting to look.. a little more personal. The insults got nastier and the stakes were just getting higher and higher. It was times like these that you were glad you were a neutral party, watching as everyone weaved magic into their squirt guns and even shooting a few magical projectiles here and there.

Her High Majesty Queen Toriel was kind enough to be hosting this little get together on her spacious and very grandiose lawn, giving plenty of places for everyone to play, as long as you minded the flowerbeds. That also gave you plenty of room to be away from all of the action. Thankfully the kiddie pool was also a bit of a safe area anyways and you avoided being caught in the crossfire, probably because you were so close to the snack table. Stars knows if anything happened to the spread of fruits, desserts and other goodies on that table then there'd be an _actual_ all out war. 

Both Her High Majesty and Lady Toriel were watching the commotion on a few beach chairs not too far from you, chatting quietly and sporting some rather elegant swimsuits of their own while downing colorful cocktails. Flowey and Temmie were nestled on another beach chair, watching the battle with interest, obviously taking bets as to who would win. The radio played some trendy tunes and it may as well have been summer already with the cheerful atmosphere in the air and the mild temperatures. You'd probably need to apply some more sunscreen soon.

"You doing okay there Rus?" you asked, glancing down to the taller skeleton who was laying on the grass beside the kiddie pool, soaking up the sun rays. He and Red were the only ones not really participating in the Fell vs Swapfell fight (despite all of the complaining from each of the parties).

"m'fine," he said with his eyesockets closed, sporting a pair of sunglasses that were taped to his skull. He looked rather peaceful, and you couldn't quite blame him, it was a very nice day to get a little sunshine. "..actually could you pass another caprisun?"

"Sure," you said, glancing over to the cooler not too far behind Red. You shot him a glare as he gave you a cheeky grin, making no efforts to move. Guess you'd have to reach over him. 

Again. 

"Mind the hands, hotshot," you said as you playfully narrowed your eyes.

"ya wound me, kitten," he purred. "as if i'd do anythin' to ya."

You rolled your eyes at him and scoffed, knowing what a lying bastard he was considering he pinched your butt last time. Water splashed up a bit as you attempted to grab the lid of the cooler, and you could already feel him move his arm. His hand reached up and squeezed your waist and you swatted at him, getting a laugh out as you tried your best to hold on to his wrist and also get a Caprisun out of the cooler. It was a little difficult, and you were thankful he was too lazy to use his other hand.

"I hope Pacific Cooler is okay because this guy is a jerk," you said, sitting back down in your spot as you let go of Red's wrist and passed Rus the drink pouch. Red shot you a wink as you stuck your tongue out at him.

"s'cool," Rus said, stabbing it with the straw and loudly drinking it down. 

"oof. ouch. yer fittin' to break my soul with all the name callin' doll," Red cried, feigning sadness and giving you a set of puppy dog eyes.

"And you're fitting to lose a hand, mister," you retorted and unable to resist giving him a kiss on the cheek. Those big watery eyelights always got to you, and you heard him let out a small purr at the contact.

"ya can always reattach it," Rus spoke up from below.

"hey, hey, hey. just cause it can come off doesn't mean i want it to," Red retorted, now flexing his hand. You were always impressed with how sharp his claws looked, and how incredibly careful he was with them. He's never scratched you with them, even on accident.

"Doesn't stop you and Sans from throwing your arms around anytime someone says they 'need a hand'," you said, crossing your arms and giving him a look.

You heard a snicker from Rus as Red grinned at you, leaning back and putting his arms behind his head.

"see, that's cause it's funny," he laughed, closing his eyesockets as he relaxed in the cool waters of the kiddie pool. 

"Oh? Are you sure it's no-"

Your words were cut short by a set of pinging noise, one coming from Red's phone and the other from your own. The both of you jumped slightly, hesitating only for a moment as you both scrambled to reach for them. They were carefully nestled in between some towels and your bag to avoid getting splashed with water, and you quickly checked your notifications as you handed Red his cell.

"tch. dammit," he muttered, looking at his messages.

Well.

It was not who you were expecting to see, but you were exactly upset.

"finally got word from classy and blue?" Rus asked curiously and you shook your head.

"no, it's our damn realtor again," Red huffed, tossing his phone back onto the small pile of towels. 

Bad timing on Mr. Roberts' part. The boys and you had finally decided to start looking for a new place to live now that there were new neighborhoods finishing up their construction. The first wave of open slots had all gone to the members of the new timeline, and then soon after opened to anyone who wanted to move. Now, there were 'For Sale' signs appearing all over the city as everyone shuffled around yet again, making it the perfect time for you to find somewhere bigger to stay. Mr. Roberts had been your realtor before and helped you get set up in your current house a few years back, so you trusted him to find that checked off most of your wishlists.

"Well, we did say to keep us posted on any new listings," you said in his defense, clicking on the link he had provided in the group chat. A rather spacious house closer to the center of town, a little out of the way of your preferred part of the city, but the pictures of it looked really nice. Very spacious inside and the yard looked nice. Plenty of space in the back too for a garden. Nice. You'd have to check it out soon.

"huh.. thought they would've said something by now," Rus hummed, continuing to drink down the Caprisun.

"yeah, us too," Red muttered while looking thoughtful, gazing back at everyone else as more water balloons were sent flying. One nailed Dyne right in the face that got a snort out of both of the skeletons.

A shame everyone couldn't be here, but Sans and Blue had gone with everyone in their respective timelines to be a welcoming party for the brand new bunch of monsters. All the political talk had just come to an end, and they were finally receiving their citizenship from the government. So, if all the paperwork is done on time, they would be allowed in the city tomorrow and you'd finally get to know your new neighbors. The anticipation had been killing you a little inside to know what they were like, even now in the calm and relaxing atmospheres.

"Chara, darling!" Her Hight Majesty's voice caused an almost instant ceasefire on both sides. "It's time to reapply your sunscreen, my dear."

You watched the child let out a small groan, everyone's hostile stance quickly going slack. It was incredibly impressive, but with how commanding Her High Majesty's tone had been it really wasn't much of a surprise.

"You too, Frisk," Lady Toriel called, and the child smiled. Looks like it was break time. The two kids wandered over to their adoptive moms as everyone else lowered their water guns and returned the water balloons to a plastic bin. Both parties were soaked, and you could tell a small argument was being made as to who was ahead as they wandered to get some more snacks from the table not too far from you.

"ANY NEWS FROM THEM YET?" Black asked, approaching the kiddie pool. He was miraculously rather dry considering how many people had taken aim at him during the battle. His dodging skills had been quite the show and you had to mark yourself down as once again rather impressed by his moves, even if he did cheat and used a shortcut a few times.

"No, but the realtor sent us a nice listing," you said, glancing back down to your phone. Black let out a small hum, catching you by surprise as he sat down next to you in the kiddie pool. He leaned closer to you, glancing at the messages on your phone even though his was also within arms reach, tucked safely away in your bag in silent mode.

"yo, ever hear three’s a crowd?" Red huffed, a bit of irritation in his voice as you were now sandwiched between the two of them. 

"THEN FEEL FREE TO GET OUT," Black retorted simply, not bothering to spare a glance at the other skeleton and Red let out an annoyed grunt. Ah, to be stuck between two tough boys. Not exactly an ideal situation, but you knew there was nowhere safer to be than between these two tsunderes. They fought the most out of anyone, their prickly personalities rubbing each other the wrong way and they absolutely loved to pick on each other given the chance. In truth you really thought that they just enjoyed the thrill of arguing.

A fact they were reaffirming as Red also scooted closer to you, a bit of a fiendish grin on his features. He snaked an arm around your waist and tugged you closer to his side, earning an unimpressed glance from Black. 

"DO YOU MIND?" he growled.

"me? nah. seems like you do though," Red snickered and the other skeleton frowned. He simply scooted closer to your side again and now you were really starting to get sandwiched between the two. 

Oh boy. Here they go.

"MY DARLING, WOULD YOU LIKE FOR ME TO GET THIS.. MANGY DOG'S PAWS AWAY FROM YOU?"

"hey, my paws are exactly where they need to be, right kitten?"

"AS IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN PAWING AT HER ALL AFTERNOON, YOU LITTLE STRAY. NEED I PUT YOU ON A LEASH?"

"oh? you'd like that wouldn't you. feel free to keep howlin' tho i ain't takin' my paws offa her unless she asks."

"IT SEEMS LIKE A YOU MIGHT BE NEEDING A MUZZLE TOO YOU MONGREL."

"Would the both of you please stop barking," you finally complained, earning a small groan from Rus.

"angel above. i can't believe you can all argue and pun at the same time," he muttered. "unbelievable..."

Really, it was quite an impressive feat, but you decided to look sternly at the two of them instead of complimenting them. Both boys gave you a slightly guilty smile, like a pair of pups who had been caught doing something bad. Cute. But you were about to let this slide.

"he started it."

Oh for the love of-

You glared harder at Red while he shrugged with a shit eating grin on his face, leaning over to nuzzle you while you continued to frown. No amount of cute skeleton nuzzles was going to make you less mad dammit! You felt your phone buzz in your hand again, Black leaning over to take a peek as you huffed a few complaints to Red, who still insisted on rubbing cheeks with you.

"....LUST..?"

It went quiet between the four of you for a moment.

"uh, ya know bro.." Rus started, a mix of both playfulness and awkwardness in his tone. "i get our therapist said to be more upfront with our feelings, but i don't think we need to know-"

"IT'S-! THE TIMELINE-!" Black hissed, leaning over the side of the kiddie pool to glare at Rus. "THE NAME OF THE NEW TIMELINE IS LUST, YOU-! CLOD-!" 

It went even quieter than before, this time the rest of the party picking up on Black's exclamation and all of previous merriment falling deathly silent. There were a few beats of it before just about everyone went diving for their phones, claws and fingertips rapidly tapping on smartphone screens. Seems like you were the only ones waiting for a text. The water splashed a bit as Black reached for his in your bag, and you slowly watched the group chat unfold.

vanilla: lust

vanilla: that's the name they've chosen for themselves

blueberry: WHICH IS RATHER FITTING CONSIDERING HOW MANY TIMES WE WERE FLIRTED WITH DURING THE WELCOMING CEREMONY!

cherry: wait, what!?

peach: Huh. That's uh... an interesting choice.

blackberry: AGREED. ALTHOUGH THEIR TRANSPARENCY ON IT IS.. RESPECTABLE. I GUESS.

cherry: wait wait wait hold on

cherry: we ain't about to just skim over this

cherry: who exactly flirted with you two?

blueberry: EVERYONE.

vanilla: everyone

peach: Wow, lol. 

blackberry: .....

cherry: wait like, everyone everyone?

vanilla: yeah

blueberry: IT WAS VERY FLATTERING, BUT THEY WERE AT LEAST RESPECTFUL WHEN WE TURNED THEM DOWN.

cherry: oh, great

cherry: cool

cherry: ya know, no big deal or anything

egg: ...you shouldn't judge them before you meet them, cherry

cherry: hey, i can judge whoever i want dammit

cherry: especially when they flirt with my datemates

cherry: also, aren't ya at therapy? 

blackberry: I WAS WONDERING THE SAME THING. 

blackberry: WHY ARE YOU ON YOUR PHONE, AXE?

egg: ...uhh

peach: Uh oh.

vanilla: caught red handed

blackberry: YOU SHOULD BE PAYING ATTENTION.

blueberry: BLACK IS RIGHT, YOU SHOULDN'T BE GOOFING OFF DURING SOMETHING SO IMPORTANT AXE!

egg: ;(

blueberry: OH NO. NOT THE FROWNY FACE! 

egg: ;(

blueberry: NOOO!

egg: ;(

blackberry: AXE, NO AMOUNT OF FROWNY FACES IS GOING TO CHANGE ANYTHING.

egg: ;(

blackberry: AXE! 

egg: ;(

blackberry: THERAPY! PAY! ATTENTION!

egg: ;(

peach: Welllllllll, you know.

peach: It is a group session. 

peach: Plus we've been dying to know who these new monsters are, so I don't see the harm.

blackberry: DO NOT TAKE SIDES WITH HIM.

vanilla: poor axe.

blackberry: YOU BE QUIET.

peach: :(

blackberry: AND DON'T YOU START WITH THAT EITHER!

egg: ..hey don't get mad at peach ;'(

cherry: oh he's hitting us with the tears now

cherry: nice goin' black

blueberry: AWW AXE, DON'T BE SAD! :'(

egg: ;'(

vanilla: now we got two teary eyed skellies and a sad human. got anything to say for yourself, black?

blackberry: OH MY GOD!

blackberry: FINE, YOU CAN STAY!

blackberry: ANGEL ABOVE..

egg: ;)

peach: :) !

blueberry: :D

vanilla: aww you guys are cute

cherry: heheh

blackberry: ANYWAYS >:(

peach: Uh oh. He hit us with the angry face.

peach: He's grumpy now.

cherry: hate to break it to you kitten

cherry: but he's always grumpy

blackberry: ANYWAYS!

vanilla: grumpy pants

blackberry: ANYWAYS!! >:(

' _egg changed blackberry's nickname to grumpy pants._ '

grumpy pants: ...

peach: Omg lol.

cherry: heh

blueberry: MWEH HEH HEH

vanilla: nice

cherry: see, i knew it was good idea to let axe be in charge of the chat

egg: ;)

grumpy pants: I HATE ALL OF YOU.

egg: ...love you too black

grumpy pants: ANYWAYS!!! >:(

grumpy pants: BESIDES THEIR QUESTIONABLE TASTE IN NAMES AND FLIRTATIOUS NATURE, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT OUR NEW NEIGHBORS THAT WE SHOULD KNOW?

blueberry: WELL.

blueberry: THEY'RE VERY NICE MONSTERS!

blueberry: AND THEY HAVE AN INTERESTING SENSE OF FASHION.

vanilla: yeah, they don't really leave much to the imagination

egg: ...huh

peach: Huh. 

cherry: ahuh

grumpy pants: HUH.

egg: ...guess we'll see for ourselves when we see them around the city..

vanilla: well 

vanilla: it might be sooner than that

peach: Oh?

vanilla: undyne invited them to that bonfire party

cherry: oh 

cherry: great >:[

blueberry: I THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA, SO I SUPPORTED HER DECISION!

blueberry: THAT WAY WE COULD ALL GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER, ESPECIALLY SINCE FARM AND OUTER WILL ALSO BE PRESENT!

blueberry: IT'LL BE LIKE ONE BIG WELCOMING PARTY!

vanilla: and this time everyone can be there

egg: ...could be fun..

grumpy pants: IT'LL BE FINE.

You could feel Red glare over at Black now, so you glanced up curiously from your phone to look between the two of them. 

"WHAT? IS THIS NOT THE BEST KIND OF SITUATION WHERE WE CAN KEEP AN EYE ON THEM?"

Them..? Did they mean the new timeline?

"....i guess," Red finally muttered, still looking a bit peeved.

"Uhh.." you started, catching their attention. "Can I ask?"

"don't worry about it kitten," Red said, turning back to his phone.

Oh you were definitely going to worry now. You pouted slightly until Black lightly placed a kiss on your cheek.

"IT'LL BE ALRIGHT, DARLING. JUST A FELL THING," he said softly before also glancing back to his phone. That didn't do much to dissuade your worries. As much as you trusted Red and Black, this wouldn't be the first time they tried to write something off as just a 'Fell thing'. No use in prying though, the two of them were the hardest to get anything out even even if you equipped yourself with big ol' puppy dog eyes and quivering lips. They were too prideful and stubborn, and the look they gave each other cemented the fact that they were up to something. For being the two who fought the most they also teamed up a lot.

Seems like Sans and Blue had to head back to the welcoming committee for now, which meant Axe had to go back to his therapy session. That left you stumped between two skeletons in a tiny kiddie pool, wondering just what the hell this 'Fell thing' was.

"WOULD YOU LIKE SOME HELP REAPPLYING SUNSCREEN?" Black asked, knocking you out of your thoughts.

Oh. Right. That would probably be smart.

"Uh, sure!" you said, reaching back for your bag. Luckily your sunscreen wasn't too far buried as you pulled it out. Red quickly snatched it out of your hands when you turned back around to the pool.

"don'tcha got a war to finish or whatever?" he asked, shooting Black a snarky grin. "why don't ya just leave kitten to me, hm?"

Black's eyesockets narrowed as he gave an even nastier glare than before and you let out another dramatic sigh. 

"IF I THROW A STICK, WILL YOU LEAVE?"

"No, but I will if you two keep this up," you said firmly crossing your arms again. They both flashed you the same charming smiles as before.

"me too."

"Thanks Rus," you said, trying your best to hold back a laugh.

"any time, sis."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when one thing is revealed, another is shrouded in mystery haha >:3
> 
> in the next chapter we'll finally be able to see all the timelines in one place, so please look forward to it.


	10. bonfires & bonds.

A bonfire crackled and flickered before you, the once intensely raging inferno now settling to a much calmer (but still arguably rather large) center piece to this wonderful little get together. 

The party was now in full swing with monsters chatting, laughing and eating in Undyne's well decorated backyard. Fairy lights were strung everywhere and the tables were full of various snacks and drinks, many of which had been absolutely destroyed already by ravenous children and monsters. Her and Alphys lived out on the edge of town and managed to score themselves a sizable property with a backyard faced off into the woods, giving plenty of space to have a big ol' shindig like this one possible.

It really was a sight to behold, having all eight timelines gathered in one place like this. You couldn't help the smile on your face as you relaxed by the fire, watching everyone interact. There was plenty of happy laughter as stories were shared, and shouting going on all over as monsters competed in shows of magic and strength.

Of course the first to catch your wandering eye was Axe, just to make sure he was still doing alright. His shoulders were shaking with a laugh as he spoke to Sage and a rather annoyed looking Paprika and Pyrus. The Horror boys had made quite fast friends with the Farm brothers, so it wasn't a surprise to see them together. They usually stuck around people they were more comfortable with in larger group gatherings like this. 

Despite a rather hesitant start at the beginning of the party, Axe seemed to be doing just fine, even gathering the courage to exchanging a few words with Undyne. You were really proud of him for coming so far ! He caught your gaze for a moment and smiled at you while waving, which you happily returned.

Blue and Black were the next ones you spotted, sitting together together and chatting it up with a few monsters from the new timeline. Blue still seemed rather upbeat about your new comrades, eagerly gesturing and telling tales of his own underground while Black was dealing out some glares you hadn't seen since you first met the stubborn skeleton.

Fells were all about establishing territory and dominance after all, but thankfully Black didn't seem to be giving them too hard of a time compared to the first time you had ever been introduced to him. (You also learned that the 'Fell thing' they had brushed off before was them making it perfectly clear exactly who their mates were now that they knew that this new timeline would be flirty. Each of you had been given something of theirs to wear; Blue was wearing Black's scarf, Axe had on Red's jacket, Sans was wearing a few of Red's chains, and you were given Black's rather nice leather jacket to wear). 

Despite their.. interesting name choice for a timeline, everyone from Lust were actually all very responsive and respectful towards other monsters. They were just a little more open about themselves.

And flirty.

..Very flirty.

They meshed in almost perfectly though, and everyone else had welcomed them with open arms. You were always thankful when a timeline was able to join the fold easily. It meant you could spend more fun filled days getting to know each other than trying to jump over hurdles dealing with the government stepping in or the city trying to impose.

The next thing to catch your eyes.. Well..

Frisk and Shrimp's tower was becoming impossible to miss with how tall it was getting near the center of the party. Of course you weren't surprised that Sans still hadn't woken up despite now being covered in everything from party cups to various bones, projectiles and belongings, all carefully arranged to form an incredible tower with him as the base. 

Just another show of those kids' determination, you supposed. That and Nebula was lending a hand by floating things up on top now that the tower was so dang tall. 

"i'm votin' that they knock it over when they put the dog on top," Red said, laying in your lap as the two of you gazed on with interest.

"..How did these dogs get out of the shelter anyways?" you asked, watching as Shrimp tried to wrangle the very excited dog into their grasp, getting white fur all over their red and black sweater. Other Dog was resting on the blanket with Red and you, their tail wagging as you looked towards them.

"great question, kitten," Red hummed, but offered no answer as he reached out to pet Other. The dog was happy to receive some love as the three of you relaxed near the warm fire. 

"I think they'll make it work if they can get Anno to behave," you said as Frisk and Shrimp began petting the dog in an effort to get them to calm down. It seemed to only be making them more excited..

Their puppies were scattered across the party, some of them being petted and doted on by other monsters, and some being chased for stealing bones or scraps from the table. All in all, this party really had been a great idea, and watching everyone come together like this was magical in it's own way.

"ah, shit."

"Hm?" you asked, gazing to the skeleton in your lap.

"our stash has run dry," he muttered. Sure enough the few bottles of ciders and beers you had brought over to enjoy were now empty, and the small plate of snacks had already been eaten through.

"Guess it's time to make a run and socialize," you hummed. 

The two of you had been hanging out near the fire to decompress a bit after saying hello and chatting it up with everyone. Being a bit of an introvert made these parties exhausting sometimes, and usually Red or Axe were more than happy to join you for a few moments of silence away from the crowds.

"would you mind grabbin' another round of drinks while yer up?" he asked, letting out a small grunt as regretfully removed himself from your lap.

"Lazy bones," you teased with a smile.

"hey i got a reputation to maintain. sittin' on my coccyx at a party with my loving datemate is hard work ya know," Red retorted, leaning over to give you a smooch that you were happy to return.

"Ahuh. Fine. But next time you're getting up," you said. 

"deal," he said, trying to not look disappointed as you stood up taking away his lap pillow. He then laid back down and stretched his arms behind his head with Other Dog happily nuzzling close to his side.

Aww, they were cute.

"Make sure you keep him out of trouble," you said to the white fuzzball. The dog just let out a small yip and you giggled as Red shot you a wink. 

And off you went on your little adventure. 

You did you best to weave through small groups of monsters, chatting and drinking while children ran circles around the yard after Annoying Dog. Although a lot had been eaten, the snack table was still loaded with plenty of stuff and you had to contemplate your choices for just a moment.

Let's see.. 

You wanted some more of Pyrus' lemonade he brought because Stars that was really good. Maybe you could get that recipe he found for it.. and hopefully not the seven page essay that came with it. Maybe some more fruit and some more of the dip Lady Toriel had made. Couldn't forget a cider for Red either and maybe some of these pretzel sticks..?

There was a light bump on your elbow that caught your attention.

"Oh, sorr-!" you started, your face falling quickly as it was met with-

"hey sis."

Oh.

"Uh.. hey Rus."

Not who you were expecting..?

You could only look at him questionably as he grabbed a handful of chips from a bowl and threw them on a paper plate of his own. He was.. close? It was just the two of you perusing the table but he was definitely bumping shoulders with you. Weird. You didn't mind of course, Rus and you had become very close over the years but uh.. 

This was kind of.. suspiciously close?

"What's uuuuup..?" you dragged out, feeling someone else approach on your other side. 

"...Boss?"

The taller skeleton let out a usual 'hmph' as you addressed him by the nickname, hands on his hips as he glared down the table.

...Okay...

Why were they...?

...

Oh...

Oh no. 

You were trapped.

"SO," Boss began, crossing his arms firmly, not even sparing you a glance. You quickly felt beads of sweat on your neck as you tried your best to also casually look back at the snack table before you. "..WHEN?"

...

"When..?" you echoed, putting some more grapes on your plate.

You didn't even have to look at Boss to know he was not impressed. The chuckle from Rus made you feel a little better though.

"WHEN."

Not a question, a statement this time. Still.. kind of vague wasn't it?

...

You knew.

You totally knew what he was talking about.

"When what?"

Ah, now he was looking at you with that same unimpressed expression on his face, only this time there was a certain glint in his eyesocket. This of course, was Boss and Rus in their 'Investigation Team' mode. Boss was the bad cop, here to intimidate you into an answer with Rus as his back up to make sure you don't split the scene. Just from the look on his face you could tell, Boss knew that you knew what he thought you knew. Which was when.

"DO YOU REALLY WANT ME TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU. HERE. IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?"

The thought was amusing but you still kept quiet.

"i mean, if we're right it won't really be news," Rus hummed, reaching for the last few pretzel sticks as the same time you were.

"You mean about us moving?" you asked feigning ignorance once more as you snatched at least one pretzel rod into your hands hand, Rus arming himself with another and lightly hitting them together.

Oh ho ho ho. If it was a sword fight he wanted, it was a sword fight he would get!

"NO, BUT BLACK HAS SHOWN ME SOME OF THE PICTURES. THE HOUSE WITH THE CROWN MOLDING ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE HAS MY VOTE," Boss stated and you pocketed his opinion for later. "YOU GET ONE MORE CHANCE."

Crap. Alright time to think fast here. It was fairly obvious by now Boss was talking about your decision to soulbond with the boys. 

Nothing got past these persistently nosy brothers after all, and they cared little for promises or secrets. They'd interrogate you until you relented.. but... Dammit you didn't want to be the one who spilled the beans!

You didn't even know how announcements for soulbonding went! Was it like a marriage announcement where you told everyone at a dinner party or something? Were you even supposed to tell everyone? Or was it like.. you'd say something when you're done!? 

A careful hum passed your lips as you and Rus continued your pretzel sword battle, Boss' foot now tapping a bit impatiently as you tried to think of a reply.

Man you really should've made a distress signal for these kind of situations.. Not that you ever imagined you'd be on the receiving end of the Investigation Teams investigating yourself but.. now would've been a really good time to have an ace up your sleeve. C'mon.. think.. think..!

"I uh.."

"s'cuse me!"

The three of you turned around to be met with...

Sans.

Well.. not your Sans. 

The newest one, from the Lust timeline, a friendly smile on his features as he gave a small wave.

"mind if i get in on this action?"

..Uh.. Huh?

"Oh! Sorry," you said, realizing the three of you were kinda monopolizing the snack table. So you playfully bumped Rus aside who easily scooted over just enough to make some room. Boss shot a small glare now that you managed to put some distance between you and his interrogations, and the newest Sans easily filled the spot.

"thank you sweetheart," he said, turning and giving you a wink.

"DON'T THINK YOU'RE GETTING OUT OF-"

"you're edge right?"

There was a small second of silence, both Rus and you staring a little surprised as Sans interrupted Boss, who wasn't even batting an eyesocket as he neatly began filling up his plate with strawberries and sweets. Boss narrowed his gaze for a moment before placing his hands back on his hips.

"...YES.." he said rather stiffly, his glare drifting slowly from you to Sans.

"your mettaton was asking about you just a second ago. the one in red right? with the two sets of arms?"

Sure enough when you turned again to glance back at the party, Mettafell was off in the distance with a smile on his face as they waved over to your little crew. 

Huh.

Looks like you might just be getting out of this yet.

"RIGHT..." Boss said, taking a quick look before glaring back at you three. He narrowed his gaze one final time in your direction before quickly turning on his feel and taking a few steps before pausing. 

"THANK YOU."

"you're welcome!"

And with that Boss stomped back across the backyard, leaving you, Rus and Sans standing at the table.

"nice one," Rus said, his plate now fully stacked with sweets and the remaining pretzel sticks he swiped when you looked away. "but edge is right, you're not getting out of this juuust yet sis."

He gave you a gentle pat on the head and an innocent yet rather terrifying smile before wandering off back towards Happy and some more of the Swapfell crew. 

"Well that isn't ominous at all," you mumbled, letting out a small sigh before glancing back towards Sans. "Thank you by the way."

"no problem sweets. you looked light you might need a hand," he said, finally looking your way. 

Just like your boys he was short and had the same roundish quality to his skull that made him rather cute. The flush of magic on his bones was a soft shade of purple, with colored eyelights to match and a small speckling of freckles across his face. His furlined vest looked fashionable and the way he proudly put all his bones on display with a stylish crop top and low cut jeans was admirable.

"Did I really seem that desperate for help?" you laughed, wondering how pretzel sword fighting with Rus at the snack table with Boss by your side might've looked to an outside party.

"mmm, not quite. more like i've seen my fair share of monsters backed into a corner like that before, although usually not so friendly looking."

Oh. 

Er..

"Sorry," you apologized briefly but he simply gave you a smile.

"nothin' to be sorry for hun. just glad to help with.. whatever that was."

"An interrogation into my relationship with their brothers," you giggled. "They mean well, they just hate being kept in the dark."

"ohhh?" he began, his tone turning much more playful than before. There was a small shine of recognition in his eyelight as he looked at you now.

"so you're that human then." 

"Is.. it funny you're not the first person to call me that?" you asked, letting out a small laugh. 

Before you had become known by both your name or as 'the one human in the relationship with five other skeletons' you had simply been referred to by 'that human'.

It wasn't meant to be harmful, just.. a rather easy way of identifying you. 

You were, by all accounts, a kind of outlier in the grand scheme of time shenanigans and monsters. Unique in the sense that there was only one of you without any timeline variant and one of the few humans who was born into this particular timeline and welcomed so readily into this tightly knit community of monsters. Besides Frisk and the other children, you were the only human present at these smaller parties, and the kids at least had the honor of having the title 'Savior of the Underground'. 

Plus, when new timelines came about they always had to ask, 'so who's that human hanging around?'.

So, 'that human' you were.

"don't like it?" he asked, almost now looking worried but you simply shook your head.

"Nah. More like if I had a G for every time I heard that nickname I'd probably be pretty rich," you said, and you watched his shoulders relax a bit. 

You held out your hand and politely introduce yourself to the newest Sans, and he happily took the chance to introduce himself too.

"names sans, which i'm sure you already knew. pleasure to meet ya sweetheart," he cooed before letting go. The flirtiness of his tone seemed more friendly than intentful, so you found yourself smiling in return.

"still trying to decide on the whole nickname thing. had a lot of good ideas but i just haven't quuuite settled on one yet. i have to say, the matching color nicknames are cute."

"That was actually Sans' idea... because he's lazy," you muttered underneath your breath. 

The goofball has uncreatively started called Red.. well.. Red, and sure enough kept the trend going for Blue and Black too, even after some protesting. Axe on the other hand had earned his nickname after brandishing one the first time you met him.

...But that was a story for later..

"is that what you call classic?" he asked curiously.

"Ah! Er.. yeah. Mostly out of habit since we started dating before any other timelines ever arrived. Sorry, I know it can get rather confusing.."

"already getting used to it," he said with a shrug, biting into a brownie. "it's actually kind of fun. we get to rebrand ourselves now that we have this whole new life to lead on the surface, and basically get to call ourselves whatever we want... well, except for our timeline i guess."

"..Please don't tell me they gave you guys the nickname instead of letting you choose for yourself," you groaned, remembering just what happened to Axe and his timeline. 

"well, to be fair we wouldn't stop arguing over what we should name it. everyone wanted something different, and in the end one of the volunteers just started calling us 'lust' because a few monsters kept flirting with the guards," Sans said with a shrug. "not exactly a cute one, but it could be worse."

"Sometimes I wonder why they even bother asking at this point if they're going to just keep shoving whatever kind of name they want on to timelines," you muttered before shaking your head. 

Sure the nicknames we're really a formal affair, but more often than not timelines were referred to their nicknames, not their number, so the title of Lust would be following these monsters everywhere all because some human called them that.

"well it's not all bad," Sans hummed, giving you another smile. "if someone's put off by the nickname before they even get the chance to know me then.. it saves me the trouble, right?"

"Fair enough," you replied. "A shame they'll be missing out then! Not every day someone turns out to be the hidden ace up your sleeve and saves you from some awkward brotherly interrogations." 

"hmm.." he began rather thoughtfully. "ya know, i kinda like that."

"Huh?" you asked curiously, glancing to the skeleton as he shoved the rest of his brownie into his mouth.

"ace," he grinned. "got a nice ring to it."

"Oh? Then why not take it for a test run?" you suggested and he laughed.

"wanna do the honors for me then, hun?"

"nah. i think i'll take it instead."

Your eyebrows raised in surprise as the both of you turned back to find both Red, who approached the table with his arms crossed glancing at the both of you rather curiously with Axe tailing not too far behind. 

Whoops. 

Guess he noticed you were gone a little too long.

"thought ya up and ran on me, kitten," he said, looking in your direction.

"Sorry. Got a little caught up in chatting," you giggled, handing him the cider you had grabbed for him. 

"s'alright," Red mumbled, taking the drink before lightly glancing at the skeleton beside you, who gave a somewhat nervous smile. Axe stood beside him, not really looking bothered as he munched on a few marshmallows from the bag he was holding.

"so then.." Red said, now turning to the skeleton beside you. Ace had a bit of a nervous expression on his face as he did his best to give a charmingly flirtatious smile and wink.

..It.. completely missed the mark as Red's expression didn't change in the slightest. Looks like that confidence that he had while handling Boss was now falling short when it came to Red. You.. did your best to hold back a laugh at the exchange, but a small snort managed to escape earning you a smile from Axe.

Still, it didn't seem to deter Red.

"..do you.." he began, his eyelights on you for a moment as you smiled at him. "..want to come sit and make some s'mores with us, ace?" 

This time a laugh actually passed your lips as Red's expression went from rough to lightly shy as he pushed down his tough guy act in favor of acting friendly. Aww, he was way too cute, but now he was glaring at you instead with a look of frustration on his face. You were the one who had given him and Black the small lecture to be more friendly this time around afterall, and of course you were proud of him for making the effort.. But seeing this cute tsundere get slightly flustered while trying his best to be more friendly was just way too adorable. 

Ace seemed.. rather happy actually, and looked a bit flustered himself at the offer.

"yeah... i would actually. thanks," he replied, his once charming smile becoming more genuine as he grinned.

"cool. just mind yer snacks. other like to sneak some away when ya ain't looking, and they're much craftier than the rest of these mutts," Red muttered, turning back and heading towards the bonfire with the three of you in tow.

"Took all my carrot sticks, the damn little fuzzball," you mumbled sadly, getting a chuckle out of Ace.

"maybe you just need to lay on more of the charm," he suggested and you raised an eyebrow.

"..To a dog?" you asked.

"you'd be surprised how far some sweet words and a few head pats will get you," he said.

...

"...don't even look my way, doll."

"What! I wasn't looking!" you said, trying your best to hold back another laugh.

"oh, you a head pat kinda guy?" Ace asked, a more mischievous grin on his features.

"no, now drop it!"

"...he is," Axe admitted to Ace.

"hey!"

"aww. pinned you as more of a nuzzler honestly."

"That too."

"argh! i'm already fuckin' regrettin' this and we ain't even sat back down yet!" Red shouted, that slight red tint of magic taking over his face as retreated farther into his turtleneck.

Axe grinned as both you and Ace laughed, and the four of you happily conversed and made s'mores by the bonfire. Seems just like him, like the rest of the Lust crew had also begun spreading out a bit from their own timeline, chatting amongst other circles and reaching out. You had to admire that kind of bravery to put yourself out there and meet new people, especially considering how shy you were just a few short years ago. Thankfully a chance meeting with some monsters from the mountains brought you unexpectedly out of your shell, and now you were one of the lucky few who got to meet new people and monsters on the regular in this city.

You were thankful to be here in this moment, making new friends and memories every step of the way. It made this whole whirlwind of a life all the more exciting and fun, and you were happy to welcome Ace and the whole Lust crew into this tightly knit circle.

You had a feeling they'd do just fine for themselves here.

...Now all you had to worry about was dodging five nosy brothers.

..Oh boy...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cough* um, hello again! apologies for how long it took for me to come out with this chapter. my poor brain gets sidetracked often with new projects and things, so this took a lot longer than intended. but, after some very sweet and thoughtful comments, i will happily be putting po6 back on it's weekly update schedule! thank you all for being so patient! 
> 
> i've been posting a lot of art and things (mostly related to my other series, but i'm always willing to answer some asks for my po6 boys too!) so feel free to give it a follow.
> 
> there is still plenty of fluff and fun to be explored here, so please look forward to more! (*≧ω≦*)


	11. mountains & molehills.

Saturday. 

The best day of the week, in your humble opinion. Fridays had work before your evening off and Sundays you would always tuck away just a little earlier to deal with the oncoming work week. But Saturdays? Saturdays meant spending a few extra lazy hours dozing and cuddling away with your sleeping buddy after staying up all night with them and then spending the night and following morning doing it all over again. It was great!

It's.. just a shame none one was around to enjoy the afternoon part of this Saturday with you. 

The quiet clicking of your laptop keyboard was the only sound to keep you company today with the house was completely emptied of skeletons, all off at work or away helping friends and family. That left you with the ever daunting decision on what to spend this glorious Saturday doing.

Daily life, work and spending some time with your brand new friends from the Lust timeline had left you feeling exhausted and tuckered out mentally, and with no one around and no errands to run, it seemed like the perfect excuse to stay inside.

Now it was just you, a mug of (now slightly cold) tea, your laptop, and this incredibly long vampire fanfiction your online friend commissioned you to edit. Like wow was this thing almost a novel in itself!

It's been quite a few years since you began taking on small editing jobs for friends and online pals. It started off as just reading over essays for a high school friend, and then her fanfictions, and now through a small community of writers you actually managed to pull some money from your editing in the form of commissions here and there.

Never enough to make it a full time job of course, but it was a fun hobby and getting to read popular titles much before the excited masses was kinda cool.

Your online pal's original vampire fanfiction 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy' had racked in hundreds of thousands of views, and they made enough money off of crowdfunding to make it their full time job. 

Their story wasn't exactly your cup of tea though, with muscular and devilishly handsome men all fighting for the affections of the main heroine, but the drama and suspense was rather well written and the characters were very likable. You were even invested into the blooming romance between two side characters, an older vampire by the name of Estella and her long time werewolf friend Annitas, who had finally come clean about years of pinning for one another and by the Stars they were so incredibly cute! You had been rooting for them for awhile now, and to see them interact in this new chapter totally had you clutching on to your pillow trying to hold in a small squeal. Ah man, you totally lived for all this cute soft fluff! If only the Vampire Council weren't in the way of their budding relationship and they could just finally be togethe-!

_WHUMP!_

......

The noise had startled you out of your editing headspace, hearing something heavy fall to the ground downstairs. 

You reminded yourself once again that you were home alone, which was very concerning, and you quickly set your laptop aside before carefully climbing out of bed.

..Maybe.. it was one of the boys..?

They had a tendency to come and go thanks to their incredibly convenient shortcuts...

But.. they usually shot you a text message if they knew you were home.

Your heart began lightly pounding in your ears as you exited out of your bedroom and headed out into the hall. The house was deathly quiet as you swallowed, very carefully heading down the stairs to peering into the living room and see who was intruding on your peaceful Sunday.

...

Oh.

...

Hm...

You let out a small breath you were holding, trying to still your beating heart and continued downstairs. Your concern was now shifted from your own safety to the skeleton who was now on the floor in the middle of the living room. 

Still fully dressed in his Royal Guard uniform was Black, face first into the carpet flooring of the living room and was quite obviously the source of the noise before. His chest rose and fell, which meant he was still alive at least, but he didn't even bother to take his shoes off, and he absolutely hated when people wore their dirty shoes inside.

...It was very clearly obvious something was wrong.  
So, you did what any good partner would do in this situation, and after looking him over for a moment to make sure he wasn't injured or anything, you carefully laid down beside him to stare at the ceiling. 

...

Huh. Despite the rather plush carpet it was.. a little uncomfortable.

...

The house resumed it's quiet state as you stared, not even a speck of dust for you to admire as you laid there thanks to Black's meticulous eye and frequent cleaning habits. You reminded yourself to verbally thank him for all his hard work at keeping this house so spotless when he wasn't face first on the floor.

...

Alright well.. You were getting to the point that you wanted to ask, but you knew you might not get a reply. He's had these kinds of days before, usually tied to the Surface-versary event, where he would come home annoyed and stressed beyond belief. The Royal Guard was brought on with the city to help do the planning and security for these kinds of big monster orientated events, and more often than not Black had his hands full of incompetent interns and people who took every last nerve he had with them.  
Throughout the years he began finding ways to vent his frustrations out in positive ways like in training or yoga, since he had difficulty communicating his emotions verbally. Years of being told that showing emotion was the greatest weakness of all in the Underground had left him with lasting repressive habits, even to this day.

Still.. When it all became too much he'd come home and lay face first on the floor while internally screaming in order to stop himself from just blowing up at the people he cared about.

The event was still a few months off, so for him to already be at this stage.. 

...

"..WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DARLING," Black stated, and you turned to face him after a few minutes of silence. He had lifted his skull just enough to look at you, irritation and stress decorating his face even as he regarded you rather fondly.

"Well, I just.. wanted to lay down next to you in case anyone came home so it just looked like we were chillin'," you said with a shrug.

That at least got a light chuckle out of him. 

Still, he looked exhausted, so you tenderly reached out to stroke his skull. A long winded sigh passed from his teeth at your touch and he closed his eyesockets for a moment. Some of the stress melted away, but there was still a bit of tension as you felt his magic buzz just beneath the surface. Normally he had such great control over it you'd hardly feel a thing, and that was the final straw to tell you that he really should talk about this.

"Rough day so far?"

"..YES," he muttered without elaborating. 

Well, it was a bit more than what you were expecting. 

You knew it took him a lot to just admit that.

Despite the fact that you and the boys have built such a strong net of support and trust, they still had their bad habits they fell back into from time to time. Black in particular took on a lot of responsibility, simply because one of his love languages was providing and making sure that you were all always taken care of, so he swallowed down a lot of his irritations and let it build and build and build... 

Until it had him laying on the floor.

A part of you wanted to scold him for letting it all accumulate so much without talking to one of you, but watching that usual frown on his face disappear into a small look of content as you stroked his cheek made you also want to comfort him.

So, comfort him you shall.

"..Have you eaten lunch yet?"

It was still technically too early for him to be home, so he must be on his lunch break. 

"...MMM."

You'd take that hum as a no. 

A shame you left your phone upstairs though, so your next best option was to borrow Black's. You carefully slid your hand into his pocket to retrieve it, receiving a small grunt in recognition of your actions but he didn't bother to stop you. It's not like his passcode was that big of a secret being the date of the boys and your first anniversary together anyways, and you knew he didn't care if you ever went snooping through his phone so long as you asked. 

So, you took that grunt as a sign of approval that it is okay to use it.

Now, all that was left was to order some comfort food from one of his favorite restaurants!

It only took a few minutes to open up a food delivery app and pull up the usual from a cute little Italian joint not too far from your house. And maaaaaybe you'd slap a dessert or something too, juuuust to be sure you can patch up his mood before he went back to work in an hour. 

After punching in the order and putting in the payment, you placed his phone down next to him before going back and tenderly stroking his skull. The floor wasn't so uncomfortable now that the two of you had been laying here awhile, but a part of you really wanted to get to the bottom of this now that Black had some time to sort himself out.

"Do you.. wanna talk about it?"

Nice opening line there, genius. A classic really. Nothing really opened the gates of communication and conversation like, 'do you wanna talk about it?' when they very clearly, DO NOT want to talk about it.

"...."

Now that's exactly the response you were expecting. Great.. 

A frown fell on your face at your own question and his eyelights quickly diverted from your expression back to the ground. Maybe it would've been better to eat lunch first or just given him more time. He clearly shortcutted back home to get some relief from the stress at work and now here you were bugging him about it! You shouldn't be upset if he's not talkin-

"I'M JUST.. STRESSED." 

It was a firm and sudden admission that caught you a little off-guard. He didn't elaborate much more, but you were determined to keep this conversation train going instead of falling back to silence.

"..About?"

"....."

Another quiet moment passed, with only the ticking of the clock on the wall and the soft sounds of your breathing filling the air.

"....EVERYTHING," he said, burying his face back into the floor. "I'M STRESSED ABOUT EVERYTHING." 

He took a sharp breath, the feeling of his magic more evident as a tension rose in his body.

"..EVEN THOUGH THIS IS SUPPOSE TO BE A VERY HAPPY MOMENT IN OUR LIVES, THERE ARE SO MANY THING GOING ON THAT ARE CLOSE ENOUGH IN OUR FUTURE TO TAKE UP MOST OF MY HEADSPACE AND TIME, YET SO FAR AWAY THAT THE ANTICIPATION OF IT ALL BEING OVER IS DRIVING ME INSANE!"

"FIRST IT WAS THE INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW TIMELINE AND ALL THE PAPERWORK THAT CAME WITH IT. WE COULD'VE CLEARED A WHOLE FOREST WITH ALL THE PAPER WE USED, AND IT'S A STARSDAMMED WONDER WHY THEY KEEP THEIR PREHISTORIC PAPER NOTATIONS AND RECORD KEEPING INSTEAD OF JUST CONVERTING OVER TO DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION."

"NOW THERE'S THE PLANNING OF THE SURFACE-VERSARY EVENT AND ASSURING THAT RUNS SMOOTHLY. IT WOULDN'T EVEN BE ALL THAT TERRIBLE IF THEY DIDN'T SEEM HELLBENT ON SENDING EVERY LAST SENSELESS INTERN AND CITY OFFICIAL THEY CAN MUSTER MY WAY, LEAVING ME WONDERING WHY THEY'RE EVEN HERE IF THEY DON'T ACTUALLY WANT TO HELP. JUST STOP WASTING MY TIME THEN AND LEAVE!"

"AND THEN ON TOP OF THAT, THE CITY AND THE EVENT ORGANIZERS CAN'T EVEN AGREE WITH EACH OTHER! THEY KEEP CHANGING THE STARSDAMMED LOCATION OF THIS PLACE JUST ABOUT EVERY OTHER DAY, AND WE CAN'T MAKE ANY PROGRESS IF WE DON'T KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOING TO HOST THE FUCKING THING! DO WE NEED TO RENT MORE TENTS? WILL WE NEED MORE GUARDS STATIONED ON THE EVENT DAY TO DIRECT TRAFFIC? WHERE IS IT!?"

"WITH ALL OF THIS JUST STACKING ON TOP OF EACH OTHER IN A FUCKING MESS AND THE DAMMED HOUSING HUNTING, WHERE I FEEL LIKE I'M GOING CRAZY LOOKING AT EVERY DAMN CORNER OF THIS CITY JUST TO FIND SOMEWHERE THAT FITS EVERYONES LAST NEED I-!"

...

He.. fell short of finishing his sentence, pausing for a moment like he was realizing what he was admitting. 

The.. expectations you all had placed had really been weighing down on him, hadn't they? 

A sudden strike of guilt hit your heart for never noticing. 

..No.. 

You.. had seen the bit of stress in his eyesocket, even back at the bonfire party, but you just assumed it was related to the usual Surfaceversary bullshit. Even though you and the rest of the boys had been giving opinions on houses and locations, Black had been the one to track them down and visited every single option you had considered with your realtor. He really took it upon himself to find somewhere that fit all of your needs...

...

"Black," you said softly, pushing yourself up to a sitting position off the floor. "I'm sorry if it feels like we're putting a lot of pressure on you. We're always here to help if you need it, so you don't have to shoulder everything."

He glanced up at you for a second before picked himself off the floor, looking annoyed, more so at himself for openly admitting he was stressing himself out than at you. That familiar light flush of purple found its way to his face as you took his hand.

"I.. I KNOW! IT'S JUST.. WITH ALL OF US NOW HAVING DECIDED TO SOULBOND I'M JUST CONSTANTLY WANTING TO TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING! IT'S NOT THAT I DON'T TRUST YOU ALL TO SHARE THIS WITH, OBVIOUSLY, BUT CONSIDERING THAT THIS HOUSE WILL BE THE PLACE WHERE WE'LL ALL BE BONDED AND.. MAYBE SPENDING THE REST OF OUR LIVES... I JUST... I JUST.." he trailed off, the flush of purple growing deeper. 

"...Want it to be perfect..?" you finished, raising an eyebrow. 

He let go of a heavy sigh, giving your hand a squeeze as you gave him a moment.

"...YES.. AND BECAUSE OF THAT I'M APPLYING EVERYONE'S EXPECTATIONS IN MY HEAD WHEN I KNOW..." he muttered, actually fumbling over his words for once. "WHEN.. I KNOW THAT JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE WOULD BE FINE, AS LONG AS I HAD YOU ALL WITH ME.."

It was a very sweet admission, and something you could never get tired of hearing, but knowing your boyfriend had been running himself in circles for you all... 

Your free hand once again found its way to cup his cheek.

"BUT.. AT THE SAME TIME, THERE'S NOTHING I WANT MORE THAN FOR EVERYONE'S WANTS TO BE MET AND FOR US ALL TO BE HAPPY," he said, his words becoming softer and more gruff with every beat. "..WHY IN THE STARS DOES IT FEEL SO DIFFICULT TO ACCOMPLISH?"

"Because you love blowing things out of proportions."

"I AM NOTHING IF NOT MY OWN WORST ENEMY," he admitted, letting out a laugh. 

You lean over to plant a kiss on his cheek and receive a gentle nuzzle in return.

"I WANT.. EVERYONE TO BE HAPPY, AND TO HAVE THE SPACE TO PLAY THEIR INSTRUMENTS OR GROW A GARDEN OR JUST... DO WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANT. TO SEE THEM ALL FULFILL THEMSELVES WOULD.. MAKE ME HAPPY," he mumbled, leaning closer and gently resting his skull on your shoulder.

You wrapped your arms around him, feeling his tension melt away more and more as the seconds rolled by and he nuzzled his face a little deeper into your neck.

"..You know what would make me happy?" you asked softly.

"...NOT SEEING ME LAYING ON THE FLOOR IN FRUSTRATION?"

"Mhm. Well that.. and that tiramisu from that Italian restaurant, which is why I ordered one with our lunch."  
"...SNRK.."  
"But besides that, what would make me happiest is when my bonefriends know that they can always ask me for help, no matter what," you said softly. "Your wellbeing matters more to me than having you run all over town for a fancy house or the perfect place. Hell, we don't even have to move! I just.. also wanted everyone to have room to do more of the things they love, which is... why i suggested it in the first place." 

"HEH ...IT SEEMS WE'RE BOTH STRICKEN WITH THE TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DISEASE OF 'CARING', AREN'T WE DARLING?" Black asked with a chuckle.

"I'd say it has a lot more blessings than curses," you hummed in reply. 

Five of them, in fact. 

Five skeleton monsters who you could never imagine your life without. 

Five people who you loved more than anything.

"I could take over checking out the open houses if it's becoming too much," you said thoughtfully. "It's not like I'm doing much with my weekends but lazing around the house anyways."

Plus you knew the other boys would always help if you asked, and you were always much more inclined to ask for assistance than Black was.

"...MMM.." he hummed again as he contemplated.

"And how about you can come whenever you want.. after you've taken a few days off from house hunting so you don't collapse from stress," you said before gently kissing the side of his skull again. "Deal?"

"..AS MUCH AS IT PAINS ME TO ADMIT DEFEAT.. I WILL CONCEDE," he muttered into your shoulder. "CONSIDERING WE'RE STILL MONTHS AWAY FROM THE EVENT AND I'VE ALREADY CONTEMPLATED MURDER ON SERVERAL OCCASIONS, I BELIEVE IT'D BE ALL IN OUR BEST INTERESTS IF I LIGHTEN MY LOAD A LITTLE."

"Yeah I don't exactly want you being put in jail for taking out some city council member or something," you laughed.

"OH, YOU ASSUME I WOULD BE CAUGHT MY DARLING," he chuckled. "I CAN ASSURE YOU ALL MY THOUGHTS OF MURDER INCLUDED A PERFECT STRING OF LIES AND DECEPTION TO PIN THE WHOLE AFFAIR ON SOMEONE ELSE WHO HAS ALSO BEEN GETTING ON MY NERVES. TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE, AS THEY SAY."

"Huh... Remind me to never be on your bad side."

"YOU COULD NEVER BE, DARLING."

It wasn't long after that your food arrived, so the two of you chatted over lunch as Black gave you the complete and full rundown of all the houses he's looked at personally, what his thoughts were, and what houses were still in the running to be considered. Looks like the place with the crown molding on the east side that Boss liked was still on the list, so you let Black know his opinion on that and also carefully skirted around the part where they interrogated you.

You'd talk to the boys about that whole thing...

Eventually.

For now you would be pretty busy handling all this housing stuff.

And stuffing half of that delicious tiramisu into your mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sometimes all you need is a good rant to your datemate and a good dessert to feel better. (*¯︶¯*)
> 
> as always here's my blog, where i pose undertale art and stuff! feel free to check it out [here](https://alch3mic.tumblr.com/) and please look forward to more.


End file.
